The reputation of local government

Public awareness and understanding of local government varies in several ways. Depending on the situation, the public may be highly conscious of their council and what it does, whereas in a different context knowledge of the council may be hazy. This is reflected in a number of findings. Local government is thought to have an important affect on people’s lives; public awareness of local councils is above that of other political institutions and people consider local authorities to be more influential in everyday life than Westminster.

On the other hand, detailed knowledge of local councils is patchy, with disparate awareness of various types of councils and the services they run. District councils and highly visible environmental services (e.g. street cleaning) attract the most attention. Awareness of upper-tier councils is lower, as it is for the non-universal services they manage (e.g. education and social services). Similarly, councillors are considered to have an important role in local public services, but few people say they know much about what they do and fewer still have actually met a councillor.

The importance of this is shown by the strong relationship between how well informed people feel they are kept by their local council and their perception of its performance. People who feel well informed about what their council does are much more likely to think it provides high quality services and that it offers residents good value for money. These are the two most important factors that influence satisfaction with council performance.

This is not to say the task of improving local government’s reputation is easy. People are influenced by many factors in forming their view of their council and some of these variables are outside councils’ hands. Analysis of BVPI data for our Frontiers of Performance reports shows that satisfaction is lower in areas with high ethnic diversity, particularly in London Boroughs. A similar pattern holds true for levels of deprivation, particularly for district councils. The more deprived a district is, the less likely its residents are to feel satisfied with their council.

Local authorities have to work with the circumstances they find, and these can put them at a disadvantage. Local government also has to contend with the negative reception it frequently encounters in the media, particularly at a national level. If councils receive coverage in national newspapers, it is considerably more likely to be critical than positive.

Nonetheless, councils can make a major difference to their credibility locally. It is not random chance that authorities with the highest CPA scores also have the highest proportions of residents who feel informed about them and have staff who are the most likely to say they would speak positively about them. The ‘My Council’ campaign can also draw on the fact that council publications are the source of information people are most likely to say they use to find out about their local authority.