Some 45 out of 255 complaints lodged with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) were upheld between April 2025 and March 2026, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
The number of complaints made to the local government ombudsman about Waltham Forest Council increased last year, a new report shows.
Between April 2025 and March 2026, some 255 complaints and enquiries were lodged with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).
This was an increase of 80 on the 175 received in 2024/25, according to a council report published this week.
Of these, 45 complaints were upheld – again an increase on the previous year, which saw 21 upheld.
Ombudsmen function as independent adjudicators that assess serious complaints made against local authorities and healthcare providers, if the complainant is still dissatisfied with the response they’ve received.
The LGSCO deals with issues relating to a council’s duties in providing housing and social aid for its residents.
If an ombudsman finds that a council has failed in its duty, it will often hit them with a fine and order them to apologise.
Last year, the majority of complaints focused on housing and education. The LGSCO received 89 complaints about people’s homes and a further 40 about schooling.
Waltham Forest Council leader Paul Perkins said that complaints “provide the council with insight about where services can be improved”.
He said: “We take this learning seriously: improving our performance and reducing the level of complaints from residents is a priority for our administration.
“We have already initiated work to better understand why complaints are increasing and identify the immediate actions we can take to reduce them.
“This is an important theme for our ongoing independent financial review, and our review of how the council is working for residents.”
The 45 upheld complaints represented a fifth of the 211 the ombudsman assessed last year. Six were not upheld.
A council spokesperson added: “Out of the 211 cases that the ombudsman issued decisions on, 143 were either referred back to the council as the correct complaint process had not been followed or were closed due to being outside the ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
“We recognise that there has been an increase in upheld complaints – as the ombudsman report notes we have achieved 100% compliance with ombudsman recommendations around upheld complaints.
“We are working hard to ensure that we use this learning to improve the way we work with residents to provide the essential services upon which they rely.”
While the volume of complaints received in Waltham Forest increased by around 45%, the ombudsman reported a 33% increase nationally.
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