Residents in the Bromley borough made almost 400,000 complaints about shoddy service last year.

The figures equate to 1.29 complaints per person which is higher than the national average.

But people in Bromley are still not complaining often enough, as it is estimated around 450,000 more complaints could have been made, meaning people are missing out on compensation or missing out on having the problem fixed.

According to Ombudsman Services, which resolves complaints that have been ongoing for more than eight weeks, last year residents made 234 complaints about their energy suppliers alone, a 5 per cent increase from 2014.

The most common gripes relate to billing issues, or problems with transfers, and the company also recorded a further 142 complaints about communications firms.

Commenting on the findings, chief ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith, said: “We’re still seeing consumers ignore millions of problems each year because they’d rather suffer in silence than go through the perceived hassle of complaining – but it’s not as complex and time-consuming as they might think.

"At a time when it is becoming more expensive to take court action, alternative dispute resolution, including ombudsmen, is an important and growing part of the civil justice system as a whole."