A new national report shows complaints about council services have hit a record high across England, yet the North East continues to have the lowest rate of complaints of any region. The exception is adult social care, where our region sits second only to London.
The figures come from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Review, published in July 2026, which covers every council in England.
The national picture
The Ombudsman received 27,625 complaints and enquiries about councils in 2025-26, a 33 per cent increase on the year before and the sharpest rise in more than a decade. The increase was not limited to one service. Housing, adult social care, special educational needs and children’s services all saw complaints rise.
Despite the volume, councils are largely responding well once problems are found. Compliance with the Ombudsman’s recommendations stood at 99.9 per cent nationally, and there was a 20 per cent rise in cases where councils had already resolved a complaint properly before it reached the Ombudsman at all.
Where the North East compares
Set against that national surge, our region’s figures stand out for the right reasons:
- 906 complaints and enquiries were received about North East councils, working out at 32.8 per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate of any region in England (the national average is 46.1).
- Children and education complaints made up 29 per cent of the region’s total, in line with the national average, but at just 9.5 per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate of any region.
- Housing complaints made up only 10 per cent of the total here, against a national average of 20 per cent, and the region’s rate of 3.2 per 100,000 residents was again the lowest in England.
Adult social care: the one to watch
The picture is less reassuring in one area. Adult care services accounted for 19 per cent of complaints and enquiries in the North East, well above the 13 per cent national average, and the region’s rate of 6.1 per 100,000 residents was the second highest of any region, behind only London.
The region’s overall uphold rate, the proportion of complaints where the Ombudsman found the council had got something wrong, was 84 per cent, slightly below the national average of 86 per cent.
Nationally, adult social care is one of three services the Ombudsman singled out as under sustained strain, alongside housing and special educational needs, with a warning that many of the underlying problems are rooted in national funding and workforce shortages rather than failures by individual councils.
What residents can do
If you’ve raised a concern with a council or an independent care provider and feel it hasn’t been dealt with properly, you don’t have to leave it there. The Ombudsman:
- Investigates complaints about all English councils, and about independent adult social care providers, whether or not the council is involved and regardless of who is paying for the care
- Is free to use and independent of both councils and government
- Publishes every decision it makes, along with performance data for individual councils, so residents can see how their own authority compares with others
Full guidance on how to make a complaint is available at lgo.org.uk.
The bigger picture
The Ombudsman, Amerdeep Clarke, described this year’s rise in complaints as evidence of a wider gap between what residents expect from public services and what they’re currently receiving, while stressing that reforms already under way, including changes to adult social care and SEND support, and the wider devolution programme, offer a genuine opportunity to put things right.
For County Durham, the data offers a reasonably encouraging starting point: fewer residents are having to escalate concerns than almost anywhere else in the country. But with adult social care bucking that trend, it’s an area local services, and the people who rely on them, will be watching closely over the coming year.
This article is based on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Review of Local Government Complaints 2025-2026, published July 2026. Figures quoted are regional (North East) or national totals as published by the Ombudsman, not figures specific to Durham County Council or any individual authority, unless stated otherwise. Complaints and enquiries data reflects cases brought to the Ombudsman and does not represent the full volume of contact between residents and their council or care provider. Percentages and rates are as published by the Ombudsman and have not been independently verified by Consett Magazine or Firefly New Media. The analysis, framing and commentary in this article are our own and do not represent the views of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The full report, local authority data tables and details of individual investigation reports are available at lgo.org.uk.
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