This compares the council's fault rate with the average for similar councils: it's the gap between how often the watchdog found this council at fault and how often it finds councils of the same type at fault. It matters because it strips out the built-in differences between council types. A positive value means more proven fault than peers — the council underperforms its own kind; a negative value means it does better than similar councils.
| name | lgsco_uphold_rate_vs_similar |
|---|---|
| dataset | 09-ombudsman-lgsco |
| kind | constructed |
| type | difference |
| unit | percentage points |
| grain | council-year |
| role | outcome |
| source | `Uphold rate (%)` − `Average uphold rate (%) of similar authorities ` (lgsco file 2 or 3; note trailing space in comparator header) |
| 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). Undefined where either rate is blank (zero-decision or zero-investigation councils). |
| score_note | Type-controlled excess fault rate — the cleanest single efficiency comparison in the dataset. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
Excess of the council's uphold rate over the LGSCO's comparator-group average. Controls for authority type, so a positive value means more fault found than in similar councils. Inherits the volatility of the uphold rate for small investigation counts.