Norwich City Council
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 38 complaints. Of these, 19 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 17 complaints. We investigated 2 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 2 complaints and upheld 2.
100% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 66% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for Norwich City Council's population, this is 1.4 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
1.1 upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 0 out of 2 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
0% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 15% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 2 cases.
In 2 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against Norwich City Council
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Council asked to resolve drainage issue which damaged Norwich householder’s wall
Norwich City Council should carry out repairs to the drainage in a city street to prevent further damage being caused to a householder’s wall, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has said.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 23 017 470
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Refuse and recycling
- •Remind relevant staff of the Council’s duties under the Equality Act 2010.
Case reference: 22 012 246
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council agreed to issue guidance to relevant staff reminding them all required evidence should be provided in relation to Ombudsman cases in response to our enquiries.
- The Council agreed to issue a briefing to all staff and contractors about identifying possible fraud cases and what action should be taken if there is a suspected fraud, especially in cases where customers contact it to alert it to cancelled direct debits or receipt of final bills where information claiming the ending of residency has been received.
- The Council agreed to issue a reminder to all revenues staff and contractors of the need to reinstate direct debit instructions quickly where accounts have been closed incorrectly to avoid arrears accumulating.
Case reference: 21 003 729
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will review its policy on deliberate worsening of circumstances in housing application cases and decide if there is a time limit on any penalties.
Case reference: 21 000 568
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will send a briefing note to staff in the Home Options team to remind them to identify and pass on any requests for homelessness assistance made in correspondence about Home Options applications.
Case reference: 20 003 055
Category: Environment and regulation
Sub Category: Noise
- A senior officer of the Council will review the complainant's case. The review should focus on the Council’s customer service responsiveness,as well as investigating noise complaints in a timely manner. The Council will identifyservice improvements to be implemented for the benefit of service users in the future.
Last updated: 4 April 2015