The complaints process

It's important to us that we are dealing with complaints in an open and honest way. We want you to understand how we are handling your complaint and how you can progress it if you are unhappy with the initial outcome.

The process

The complaints process cannot be used where there is an existing statutory or relevant alternative method of raising the issue like:

appeals about housing benefit awards
appeals about the outcome of a medical assessment for rehousing
appeals from homeless people about how suitable an offer of a permanent home is, and
appeals about parking
where there is a legal form of redress.

Our internal complaints procedure has two stages.

Stage one

We hope to resolve all complaints at this stage. Once you have submitted your complaint and we have looked into it, we will write to you with our response within 20 working days. Your complaint will be responded to by a Divisional Director or a manager acting on their behalf.

Stage two

If you are not happy with our response at stage one, you can ask for a final review. Just let the Corporate Complaints Team know that you want to do this and why. The council's Chief Executive or a Senior Officer acting on his behalf will review the previous decisions and decide if they were fair and reasonable. Again, we will aim to deal with your complaint within 20 working days. If we can’t complete it on time, we will tell you why.

If you are still unhappy, at this stage, you should seek advice on your complaint from outside of the council.

Our promise

Tower Hamlets is committed to giving you the best possible service. It is only by listening to your views that we can find out what we are doing well and what needs to improve. If you are making a complaint we will carry out enquiries independently and fairly, deal with your complaint as quickly and effectively as we can while maintaining confidentiality and keeping you informed of progress. We want to reassure you that the service you get will not be affected if you raise concerns or make a complaint.

Whenever you contact us, we will always:

be polite and treat you with respect
give you honest and clear advice
make it clear what we can and cannot do
not pass you from one person to another
listen to your views
admit when things go wrong and do our best to put them right.

If you are making a complaint, we will also:

carry out enquiries independently and fairly
deal with your complaint as quickly and effectively as we can
maintain confidentiality, and
keep you informed of our progress.

What we ask you to do

treat us politely and with respect
tell us when things go wrong so that we can put them right
if your complaint is about a member of staff, please put it in writing or complete the online complaints form.