Every UK council has been ranked by its Google reviews, and Kingston Council averages 1.61 stars from 311 reviews, with 257 of them giving one star.

Seven of the 10 lowest-rated councils in the UK are London boroughs, a study of Google reviews by seobacklinks.com has found.

Tower Hamlets Council has the lowest rating in the country, at 1.11 stars out of five, with 98 of its 101 reviews giving a single star. Newham (1.25), Harrow (1.26), Bromley (1.30), Bexley (1.32), Ealing (1.36) and Haringey (1.37) are also in the bottom 10.

At all seven, the most common complaint in recent reviews is that people cannot get through to the council by phone or email.

The figures come from web experts at seobacklinks.com, who checked the main Google Maps listing for each of the UK's 382 councils on 8 October 2026, meaning the listing for the council's headquarters or main customer service centre.

Listings for a single department such as bins, parking or registrars were left out, as were depots and listings for a town hall or guildhall as a venue.

A council needed at least 100 reviews to be ranked, which gave 108 councils.

Each is ranked on its exact average star rating, worked out from its count of one to five-star reviews, so councils showing the same rounded rating on Google can still be put in order.

For the 10 lowest-rated councils, the team also read each one's 60 most recent reviews to see what people were complaining about.

How London compares

29 London councils have enough reviews to be ranked, and 21 of them score below two stars.

Of the 11,034 Google reviews of London councils, 9,005 (82%), including Kingston, give one star, against 76% across the UK. The average London council scores 1.73 stars out of five, against 1.88 for the UK.

Westminster City Council is London's highest rated on 2.70 stars, the seventh highest in the UK. Greenwich (2.56), Wandsworth (2.50) and Hackney (2.43) come next.

London's seven lowest-rated councils replied to one of their 420 most recent reviews between them.

All 29 London councils in the ranking withlowest rated first

1. Tower Hamlets Council: 1.11 stars (101 reviews)
2. Newham Council: 1.25 stars (362 reviews)
3. Harrow Council: 1.26 stars (871 reviews)
4. Bromley Council: 1.30 stars (239 reviews)
5. Bexley Council: 1.32 stars (113 reviews)
6. Ealing Council: 1.36 stars (1,322 reviews)
7. Haringey Council: 1.37 stars (641 reviews)
8. Enfield Council: 1.43 stars (665 reviews)
9. Merton Council: 1.47 stars (334 reviews)
10. Barnet Council: 1.50 stars (458 reviews)
11. Southwark Council: 1.52 stars (401 reviews)
12. Croydon Council: 1.52 stars (496 reviews)
13. Camden Council: 1.59 stars (249 reviews)
14. Waltham Forest Council: 1.59 stars (564 reviews)
15. Islington Council: 1.60 stars (460 reviews)
16. Kingston Council: 1.61 stars (311 reviews)
17. Lambeth Council: 1.67 stars (275 reviews)
18. Lewisham Council: 1.72 stars (137 reviews)
19. Hammersmith and Fulham Council: 1.73 stars (291 reviews)
20. Sutton Council: 1.79 stars (151 reviews)
21. Brent Council: 1.84 stars (662 reviews)
22. Hillingdon Council: 2.01 stars (148 reviews)
23. Redbridge Council: 2.07 stars (301 reviews)
24. Richmond upon Thames Council: 2.12 stars (105 reviews)
25. Hounslow Council: 2.17 stars (375 reviews)
26. Hackney Council: 2.43 stars (342 reviews)
27. Wandsworth Council: 2.50 stars (379 reviews)
28. Greenwich Council: 2.56 stars (136 reviews)
29. Westminster City Council: 2.70 stars (145 reviews)

Oliver Weston, founder of seobacklinks.com, said: "People don't leave their council a Google review when the bins are collected on time.

"They leave one after an hour on hold, which is why these scores are so low and why the same complaint keeps coming up.

"What surprised us is how little councils do about it. The star rating sits right beside the phone number when you search for your council on Google, and the 10 lowest-rated councils replied to one of their 600 most recent reviews.

"A short public reply saying who to contact would cost a council nothing."