Lancaster City Council Housing Complaints Policy:

This document sets out Lancaster City Council's official process for dealing with complaints, explaining everything from what a complaint is to how it will be handled.

• Complaints Policy (February 2026)

Complaints Self-Assessment Form:

This is our annual tool  to provide assurance that we meet the Complaint Handling Code. It detailis how we define complaints, handle them, and learn from them, ensuring tenant transparency and service improvement

• Complaints Self-Assessment Form (June 2026)
• Complaints Self-Assessment Form [Reassessment] (Dec 2025)
• Complaints Self-Assessment Form (2025)

Complaints Performance and Service Report

This report summarises how our housing service performed when handling complaints in 2023-2024, detailing what was learned and how we plan to improve in the future.

• Complaints Performance and Service Report (2025-2026)
• Complaints Performance and Service Report (2024-2025)
• Complaints Performance and Service Report (2023-2024)

Cabinet Response to Complaint Code Self Assessment & Annual Report:

This document serves as the official response from Lancaster City Council's Cabinet in regard to their endorsement of the annual complaints report and its action plan.

• Cabinet Response to Complaint Code Self-Assessment & Annual Report (2026)
• Cabinet Response to Complaint Code Self Assessment & Annual Report (2025)
• Cabinet Response to Complaint Code Self Assessment & Annual Report (2024)

Housing Ombudsman Landlord Performance Report:

This document serves as the official response from Lancaster City Council's Cabinet in regard to their endorsement of the annual complaints report and its action plan.

• Housing Ombudsman Landlord Performance Report (2025-2026)

• Housing Ombudsman Landlord Performance Report (2023-2024)

We define a complaint as:

“An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of individuals.”

A service request is a request for us to take action to put something right, for example reporting a repair for the first time.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about our service, actions, lack of action, staff or contractors.

If you are dissatisfied, we will give you the choice to make a complaint. This applies even if the original service request is still being dealt with. We will continue working on the service request while the complaint is investigated.

You can complain:

• using our online complaint form; Click here
• by email at: complaints@lancaster.gov.uk
• by telephone; 01525 582929
• in writing; 
• in person; at any of our office locations - or-
• by speaking to any member of Council Housing staff.

You may ask somebody to complain on your behalf, including a relative, friend, advocate, councillor or advice worker. We may need your consent before discussing personal information with them. In these cases wil will ask you to fill out a Consent for Third Party Complaints Form.

You can make a complaint anonymously and we will consider your complaint, any investigation will be proportionate to the potential outcome.

All information about you or anyone involved in the complaint will be dealt with in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

If you need help to make your complaint, or need information in another format or language, please tell us. We will make reasonable adjustments where needed.

To help us best respond and resolve the issue you are facing, we kindly ask that when making your complaint please ensure you provide your contact details along with a full description of what happened, how you have been affected and what outcome you are hoping for.

Council Housing will always accept a complaint unless there is a valid reason no to do so. However, when assessing whether to treat a contact as a complaint or not. Each case will be considered on its individual merits and consideration may be given..

Below are examples of some of the excluded complaints, which will not be investigated:

•  Day to day service requests or the initial reporting of faults, where no clear complaint has been made.
• Disagreements with the Council's policies where the complaint is not based on an alleged failure to follow due process or a misapplication of that policy.
• Complaints only about the amount of Rent, Service Charges, or Fees (or the size of an increase), where there is no claim of an error in the way the charge was set or calculated.
• Complaints against individual employees which arise from dissatisfaction with a council policy or decision, and where no other basis for the complaint exists.
• Appeals against any council advice, actions, or decisions in its capacity as a regulator where a statutory right of appeal or other council appeals/review procedure exists.
• Appeals concerning a matter where an alternative appeal/review procedure exists, such as an appeal within the council or to an independent tribunal (e.g., the awarding of Housing Benefits).
• Matters that have previously been investigated and responded to under the complaints policy. and has exhausted the complaints process with no new information or evidence being provided.

For a full list please see our Complaints Policy

Please Note: Any expression of dissatisfaction regarding our services that is made through a survey, will not be defined as a complaint. Wherever possible, we will contact the person completing the survey to advise how they can pursue a complaint if they wish to.

We operate a two-stage complaints process designed to ensure your concerns are properly investigated and responded to fairly.

Stage 1 Complaint

When we receive your complaint, we will:

• Acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days.
• Confirm our understanding of your complaint and the outcome you are seeking.
• Ensure an appropriate officer investigates the issues raised.
• Provide a written response within 10 working days of acknowledgement.

Where we need additional time to fully investigate your complaint, we will explain why, tell you when you can expect a response, and keep you updated on progress.

Putting Things Right

Where we identify that something has gone wrong, we will take appropriate action to put matters right. This may include:

• Apologising;
• Explaining what happened;
• Taking corrective action;
• Making service improvements;
• Reviewing procedures or practices; or
• Offering compensation where appropriate.

If, following the response that you have received, you remain dissatisfied then you may request for your complaint to be escalated to Stage Two of the Council’s complaint’s policy.

Stage 2 Complaint Review

If you remain unhappy with our Stage 1 response, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed at Stage 2.

At Stage 2:

• We will acknowledge your escalation request within 5 working days.
• A senior officer who was not involved in the Stage 1 investigation will review your complaint.
• We will provide our final response within 20 working days of acknowledgement.

You do not need to provide detailed reasons for requesting a Stage 2 review, although understanding your remaining concerns may help us address them.

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at any stage of your complaint.

You do not need to wait until our complaints process has finished to ask the Ombudsman for advice and support. The Ombudsman can help you understand the complaints process and may contact us while your complaint is being considered.

After you receive our final Stage 2 response, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman to investigate your complaint.

Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484, Preston PR2 0ET
Telephone: 0300 111 3000
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: Housing Ombudsman Service

The Social Housing Governance Manager is the Council Housing complaints officer and has operational responsibility for complaint handling, liaison with the Housing Ombudsman and reporting complaint performance and learning.

The Chief Officer for Housing and Property is the senior officer accountable for the Council Housing service.

The Council also appoints a Member Responsible for Complaints, who provides Member oversight and ensures complaint performance and learning are considered through the Council’s governance arrangements.

Complaints may be submitted through any of the routes shown on this page. General enquiries about the complaints process can be directed to complaints@lancaster.gov.uk

We are committed to transparency and continuous improvement in our complaint handling processes. To see the latest performance information, please visit our Performance Page, where you will find up-to-date data, and insights on how we are addressing and resolving complaints.

Our aim is to provide our customers with a high level of service that is responsive to their requirements. Our quality objectives are to ensure that:

• Services Are Provided That Are Appropriate And Responsive To Customer Needs
• All Relevant Details About A Customer's Needs Are Obtained To Enable Their Request To Be Fairly Assessed
• Clear And Accurate Advice And Information Is Given
• The Customer Is Kept Informed
• Decisions And Actions Are Taken At The Right Time
• Service Standards Are Set, Monitored, And Reviewed In Consultation With Customers

We want tenants to help us improve how complaints are handled. This includes reviewing our policy and webpage, considering anonymised learning from complaints and helping us make the process more accessible.

When your complaint closes, we may ask you to complete a short satisfaction survey. Your response will not affect the outcome of your complaint or any service you receive.

If you would like to take part in future complaints review activity, please contact:

• Email:  chengagement@lancaster.gov.uk
• Tel:     01524 582929