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Suggestion, compliment and complaint

Our customer service promise

We are committed to putting our customers first by providing excellent customer service. This means:

  • We will listen to you and be polite, helpful and respectful.
  • We will try as hard as we can to resolve your enquiry quickly and first time.
  • We will make sure the information we give you us clear, helpful and easy to understand.
  • We will do what we say we are going to do.

Should I complain?

We take all complaints very seriously. While we try to provide a good service, we know that sometimes things go wrong. We have developed a complaints procedure for you to use if you feel that this is the case.

Sometimes residents send complaints to us that could be dealt with more quickly by contacting the correct team. You may want to check with the relevant department before sending a complaint, as it may be that we can solve the problem straight away. Some of the most common are:

If you want to make a formal complaint, it will be dealt with according to our complaints policy. This sets out the process for how we will respond to your complaint, and what happens if you disagree with our response.

How do I complain?

There are many ways you can submit a formal complaint to the council:

Suggestions, compliments and complaints,
Portsmouth City Council,
Civic Offices,
Guildhall Square,
Portsmouth,
PO1 2ZX

I need help with my complaint

Everyone has a right to have someone act on their behalf. You can be represented by:

We need to have proper consent before we can discuss the complaint with your representative. This is normally written consent, giving them permission to act on your behalf.

Corporate complaints policies

Corporate complaints policy 2021 (applies to all new complaints and complaints that are still at stage one of the complaints process by 1 December 2021).

Corporate complaints policy 2018 (this policy applies to any complaints that are already at stage two of the complaints process on 1 December 2021).