Councils must work harder to engage with residents

We recently carried out a national survey with Populus looking at how residents' views of councils are changing in light of local budget cuts. The results demonstrated a noticeable shift in the national mood over a relatively short period, just four months since our last survey. Findings show residents across the country becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their local councils, are less likely to feel their council offers good value for money, informs about services and benefits or takes account of their views when making decisions. It is perhaps not surprising that the results come as town halls start implementing deep cuts to services and residents become more aware of the impact these may have. The report primarily studies three key factors: residents' knowledge around the cuts, their expectations and how this impacts council reputation. On knowledge, our report shows that one in eight (13%) people mistakenly think that government spending will go up for local councils over the next 12 months, while one in five (18%) think it will stay the same, when it will universally go down. In addition, many residents believe council tax will go up (70%), when it is likely to be frozen. This shows that despite extensive local and national media coverage many people either do not notice or understand the implications of government proposals around cuts. Of course, not everyone is technically literate to understand the complexities of local government finance, and in many cases this kind of information may be perceived as dull resulting in people 'switching off' to the news. But the default public position seems to be that when in doubt, residents feel tax and spending generally go up. When considering residents' expectations our report shows that for the majority there are concerns that services and value for money will decline (54% and 53% respectively). People who most expect things to stay the same or even improve are most likely to be dependent on council services. The risk for local government is that these users switch off from the bad news and hope for the best instead. On reputation, a core group of residents believe that their council will rise to the challenge and deliver improved service and value for money, despite cuts. However, for the majority a decline in services is confirmation of a long-term trend of a perceived underperformance by local government. They are of the mind that if local government wasn't delivering to an expected level before, these cuts are hardly likely to help. But what do these results mean in practice for local authorities? It's vital that councils recognise that they need to engage their residents in the process of deciding where and when to make cuts in order to help them through any change in services . They also have to ensure that residents are encouraged to take positive action where they can and allow them to take control over their own lives as well as local services. Only two in five (42%) of residents feel that their council takes account of their views when making decisions. In practice, this means communications has to be tailored to a number of difference audiences to ensure it is meeting the different needs of different groups of people. Many residents want the immediacy of information from their local media, but four in five (77%) also want the quality and depth of information from the council itself through channels such as council magazines, but only three in five (60%) say they have seen such publications in the last three months. Councils, however, also need to go beyond council publications and local newspapers. Those likely to be most affected by cuts to services are those least likely to consume broadcast media. They need to be engaged face-to-face or through intermediaries. Half (51%) of residents would like their local councillor to tell them about changes to services, and three in ten (30%) would like to be engaged through social media. Given all the changes that are going on within local government it is never been more vital to keep residents informed but our results shows that unless we act quickly, we risk failing in this duty. Neil Wholey is chair of LGinsight. For the full report click here . This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the local government network for more like this direct to your inbox.