When residents feel their council has failed them and the council's own complaints process doesn't sort it out, they can escalate to an independent watchdog (the LGSCO). This counts how many such complaints and enquiries the watchdog received about the council in a year. A high number means many residents felt driven to go over the council's head; note it measures frustration and volume, not proof the council was at fault.
| name | lgsco_complaints_received_total |
|---|---|
| dataset | 09-ombudsman-lgsco |
| kind | extracted |
| type | count |
| unit | complaints/year |
| grain | council-year |
| role | feature |
| source | data/lgsco/1-Complaints-Received-{yy}-{yy}.csv, column `Total` |
| period | 2023-24 and 2024-25 editions |
| missingness | Rows exist only for councils in scope of LGSCO; `Upheld decisions per 100,000 residents` and rate columns are blank for zero-decision councils. Percent columns in file 2 are strings like `67%`. Join to Housing Ombudsman data is by name and lossy (ALMO/association names don't match council names). |
| score_note | Universally available and simple, but raw escalation demand is not a fault measure. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
Total complaints and enquiries received by the LGSCO about this council in the year. Measures raw failure demand reaching the ombudsman — how often residents escalate beyond the council's own process. Volume, not fault: receipt does not imply the council was wrong.