25 May 2007
Public confidence in town halls has declined, a government survey has found, prompting ministers to call for devolved powers to be used straight away.
A triennial study by the Department for Communities and Local Government, published on May 23, shows that only 54% of the public are satisfied with their council's local services – a decrease of one percentage point since the 2003/04 survey.
Overall confidence in town halls has dropped by 11 percentage points since 2000/01, despite a general improvement in councils' performances under the Comprehensive Performance Assessment regime over the same period.
Local government minister Phil Woolas said the figures 'show we cannot take the public for granted' amid rising expectations for public services nationally and locally.
'We must find new ways to engage with people and meet their ambition,' he said. 'That is why we are devolving unprecedented levels of power through our new “community call for action”, greater community management and ownership of assets, and more powers to frontline councillors to give people a greater voice.'
Those powers are contained in the Local Government Bill, which is working its way through parliament. The community call for action could, for example, allow dissatisfied residents to assume control of services if they are failing, while other powers could improve local scrutiny of service providers.
But the survey indicates that such powers can't come soon enough: just 32% of residents believe they can influence local decision-making, while a disappointing 28% are satisfied with participation opportunities.
However, the DCLG this week dismissed claims that its response to a six-year decline in public confidence had been slow.
The survey also reveals significant declines in confidence over councils' ability to keep local residents informed about the services and benefits they provide: just 47% believe their local authority does this well – down eight percentage points on the 2003/04 study.
Public confidence in waste disposal remains high: 79% are satisfied, an improvement of four percentage points 2003/04. But the study was undertaken before the recent furore surrounding a possible switch to fortnightly waste collections, which proved unpopular.
Over 73% of residents are also satisfied with local library services, and parks and open spaces, while leisure services (53% satisfaction rate) received mixed backing.
Sandy Bruce Lockhart, chair of the Local Government Association, told Public Finance that councils must do more to link themselves to the services that they provide.
'Satisfaction with services is rising and yet overall satisfaction is falling. We must all do more to bridge this gap,' he said. 'Whilst unpopular services such as council tax demands and parking tickets are clearly branded, we are still witnessing important services such as street cleaning, environmental services and recycling…carrying no mention of the local authority.'
The LGA has launched a campaign to improve local branding.
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