Complaints

Camden Council’s definition of a complaint is: 

‘When someone lets us know that they are unhappy with our service and they want us to take action to resolve it’. 

We want to make Camden a better borough – a place where everyone has a chance to succeed and where nobody gets left behind.

Together, we will create a place that works for everyone, and where everybody has a voice.

We will make sure we put communities and residents at the heart of everything that we do.

In order to do this, we encourage you to get in touch when things go wrong. When they do go wrong, we need to know so we can put them right and learn from our mistakes.

Log your complaint using our online form: 

Make a complaint

The Complaints Team Contact details
Postal address: Town Hall, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE
Email: complaints@camden.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7974 4444

View our formal complaints policy.

We have reviewed our complaints policy and procedure in line with the requirements of the joint Housing Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
We have also reviewed it to include the Building Safety Regulator’s requirements for handling of complaints relating to High Rise Residential Buildings.

The policy is based on the principle of a two-stage process.

• The complaint will be passed to the relevant service department for a resolution
• The local service department resolution will then be reviewed by a complaints officer if you are not satisfied with the resolution at Stage 1.

The complaints policy will apply both to services we provide and to services where we have a responsibility, such as contracted services.

When replying to a complaint, we will inform the complainant of any right of further redress, such as Housing Ombudsman and Local Government Ombudsman, after the review stage. You can contact the Ombudsman for advice at any time during the complaint handling process.

If you are still dissatisfied by the outcome of your complaint after you have been through the Council's internal complaints process, you may wish to complain to the Ombudsman. Details about how you can complain to the relevant Ombudsman service will be explained in your review stage response letter.

The Housing Ombudsman and Local Government Ombudsman are independent from the Council.

The Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman Service is set up by law to look at disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords including housing associations and local authorities. The Ombudsman service is free, independent, and impartial.

If you have exhausted Camden’s complaints procedure and you are not happy with the outcome, you can ask the Ombudsman to assess your case.

You can also contact the Ombudsman for free impartial advice at any point including before making a complaint or while Camden are investigating a complaint you have made.

Find out more about the Housing Ombudsman 

The Complaint Handling Code

The Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code sets out good practice that allows landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly.

We use the code to make sure it’s easy for residents to tell us if something has gone wrong, and to ensure that we listen, understand, and take action to put things right.

It is now a statutory requirement that social housing landlords complete a self-assessment to check that they comply with the Code. From this year we are required to publish an annual complaint handling and service improvement report. This report contains the responses from the governing bodies: Housing Scrutiny Committee and Resources and Corporate Performance Scrutiny Committee. 

2023/2024 reports

• Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code 2024
• HO Complaint Handling Code Self-Assessment LB Camden 2023/24
• HO Annual Complaint Handling and Service Improvement Report 2023/24

Previous years' reports 

• HO Complaint Handling Code Self-assessment LB Camden 2019/20
• HO Complaints Handling Code Self-assessment LB Camden 2020/21
• HO Complaint Handling Code Self-assessment LB Camden 2021/22
• Complaint Handling Code Self-assessment LB Camden 2022/23

Find out more about the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code on the Housing Ombudsman website

Camden Council remedies policy and procedure

Remedies policy Appendix 1 Housing Repairs

The Building Safety Regulator – complaint handling

The corporate complaints policy and procedure applies to all complaints submitted. However, there is some specific information that applies to Building Safety Complaints (High Rise Buildings). 

Building Safety Complaints Complaint Handling

Building Safety Complaints Complaint Handling has been specifically developed to help us meet our obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022 (Section 93) which requires the Principle Accountable Person (PAP) to establish and publish a complaints system to which building safety cases currently apply – that is High Rise Residential Buildings over 18 metres.

Complaints by Councillors and Members of Parliament

The complaints policy is intended for individual citizens to seek redress. Councillors and MPs may bring a formal complaint by acting as their constituent’s advocate.

Special Cases

We intend, where possible, to allow a complaint to be dealt with under this procedure. The only exceptions relate to some statutory and legal limitations. Some examples are:

• A Town and Country Planning appeal against refusal of planning permission.
• A complaint where the customer or the council has started legal proceedings or has taken court action but not cases where a customer has simply threatened to start legal proceedings against the council.
• A complaint that has already been heard by a court or tribunal, including the council's benefit review procedure.
• A complaint about adult social care or children’s issues covered by the statutory procedures.
• A school admission or exclusion appeal.
• A staff complaint about a personnel matter, including appointments, dismissals, pay, pensions and discipline (but not from staff as service users.)
• A complaint about council policy or an insurance matter.
• A complaint about the issue of a Penalty Charge Notice by Parking Operations (except administrative issues) and the recovery process thereof, which are subject to a separate appeal process.
• A complaint against the refusal of disabled badges for parking exemption (where a special appeal process applies.)

Annual complaints reports can be found linked below

Annual Complaints Report 2022-2023

LBC Annual Complaints Report 2022-2023
Appendix 1: Stage 1 by Month 22-23
Appendix 2: Stage 1 Performance 22-23
Appendix 3: Stage 1 Outcomes 22-23
Appendix 4: Stage 2 by Month 22-23
Appendix 5: Stage 2 Performance 22-23
Appendix 6: Stage 2 Outcomes 22-23
Appendix 7: LGSCO Data 22-23
Appendix 8: HO Data 22-23
LB Camden Childrens Statutory Services Annual Complaints Report 2022-2023
Appendix 1: Childrens Services Complaints Annual Report 22-23

Annual Complaints Reports 2021-2022

London Borough of Camden Annual Complaints Reports 2021-2022
Appendix 1: All Complaints by Service 21-22
Appendix 2: All Complaints Performance 21-22
Appendix 3: All Complaints Outcomes 21-22
Appendix 4: All Complaints Type 21-22
Appendix 5: LGSCO Data 21-22
Appendix 6: HO Data 21-22

Childrens Statutory Services Annual Complaints Report 2021-2022
Appendix 1: Childrens Annual Complaints Report 21~22

Annual Complaints Reports 2020-2021

London Borough of Camden Annual Complaints Report 2020-2021
Appendix 1: All Complaints by Service 20-21
Appendix 2: All Complaints Performance 20-21
Appendix 3: All Complaints Outcomes 20-21
Appendix 4: All Complaints Type 20-21

Children’s Statutory Services Complaints Annual Report 20-21 
Appendix 1: Children’s Annual Complaints Report 20-21 

Annual Complaints Reports 2019-2020

London Borough of Camden Annual Complaints Report 2019-2020 
Appendix 1: Complaints by Service by Month 2019-2020
Appendix 2: Complaints Performance April 2019-March 2020
Appendix 3: Complaints Outcomes April 2019-March 2020

Children’s Statutory Services Complaints Annual Report 2019-2020 

If you have suffered an injury and/or property damage, and you consider the London Borough of Camden to be responsible, please print off the relevant claim form below, complete and sign the form and email it to us at finance.insurance@camden.gov.uk.

• Public Liability Claim Form (PDF)
• Insured Property Claim Form (PDF)
• Motor Insurance Claim Form (PDF)

In some cases, you may have other insurances that cover the relevant damage or injury. They would usually be able to do so more quickly and without any future premium penalty or, in the cases of property losses, without deduction for wear and tear which would normally be applied to a liability property damage claim.

If you are a Camden tenant and have your contents insured through Allianz Insurance and wish to make a claim via this Policy, please contact Rent Support in the usual way. Allianz Insurance is provided through Rent Support.

Completion of this form should not be construed as a right to compensation. The Council will only pay compensation where evidence of negligence or a breach of statutory duty on behalf of the Council and/or its employees exists.

The Council will not consider claims that are a result of the negligence of contractors.

In order to manage expectations in terms of the-time frame for handling any claim, the Council follows the Civil Procedure Rules. Therefore, we will meet the following deadlines:

• Acknowledgement of claim within 21 days.
• The Council has 3 months from acknowledgement of your claim to investigate the circumstances that gave rise to your claim and provide a response on liability.
• In addition to the deadlines imposed by the Civil Procedure Rules, the Council will endeavour to respond to any correspondence from you within 14 days.

If you have any queries in regards to the claims process, please contact the insurance team.

Portal claims made against the council are handled in-house. As such, all new Portal claims should be made directly against the council via the Claims Portal (Portal ID: G00549).

A complaint that a Councillor has breached the Code of Conduct needs to be made in writing and sent to the Council's Monitoring Officer, the Borough Solicitor either online, via email or via post.

• Complain about a councillor online
• Complaint against a councillor form (PDF)

The Code of Conduct, which includes procedures for dealing with misconduct complaints against councillors can be found here:

Councillor Code of Conduct.pdf

Contact: Andrew Maughan    

Email: Andrew.Maughan@camden.gov.uk      

Telephone: 020 7974 5656

You can report:

• fraud
• corruption
• bribery
• irregularity

To either of the following:

Camden’s Anti-Fraud and Investigations Team (AFIT) on any of the following numbers (please note that these numbers are for reporting fraud, corruption, bribery or irregularity and not for general complaints):

• 020 7974 1949
• 020 7974 2281

You can also email your concerns to: InternalAudit@camden.gov.uk

All calls are treated confidentially. If you raise a concern in good faith, under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, no action will be taken against you even if no evidence of wrongdoing is found.

You may also contact the following organisation outside the Council for assistance with your concern:

Public Concern at Work, now known as Protect.

Telephone: 020 3117 2520

Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy June 2023 (PDF)

Whistleblowing Policy June 2023 (PDF)