A possible public backlash to council tax rises could be
avoided if the public was better informed about local council
services. This was the key finding of a nationwide study conducted by
Telewest Business in the wake of 22 million homes across the UK now
being revalued by the government's Valuation Office agency for a
rebasing of charges in April 2007.
An alarming 73 per cent of people surveyed felt they were not getting value for money from their local authority for council tax contributions. A further one in five people polled rated local council services as below average with nearly 15 per cent slating them as rubbish.
The study also highlights that poor communication by local council services to citizens could be the overriding factor to blame for the public's dismay with council tax payments and more generally with local council services. Nearly three quarters of respondents said that they would feel they were getting better value from their council tax if they were better informed about which public services and amenities their council held responsibility for locally.
In addition, despite local authorities investing millions across the UK to improve basic public services and increase their accessibility through online initiatives, the Telewest Business survey also spotlighted online take up of public services remains slow. Although just over a third of respondents would like to be informed about new and existing services from their local council by email, only 7 per cent had contacted their council via a council web site.
"Local councils are failing to win public hearts as a lot of what they do remains invisible to citizens," said Christopher Small, Director of Public Sector at Telewest Business. "There is a communication breakdown between councils and the public and the risk is that citizens will not be giving councils the recognition they deserve. Councils need to review their communications infrastructure to ensure the public is better informed and the Government doesn't increase public dismay in the wake of future council tax reviews."
The Telewest Business study sought to examine whether the British public feels they are getting the most out of their local council. In the past few years there has been an explosion of new services being brought online by local councils in an effort to make life easier for their citizens. In light of this, the study also evaluated the public's overall level of awareness of local council services, information flow between local councils and their citizens and the public's preferred method of communication with their local authority.
Local authorities provide a range of public services from street cleaning to social services to cultural events. When respondents were presented with a list of public services and amenities provisioned by their local council as part of the study, less than 50 per cent of respondents overall were able to identify individual public services their council held responsibility for. For those services they were able to identify, over half of the people polled wouldn't know which council department to contact for assistance.
This was not surprising when, one in five people polled had never received a direct communication from their local council with information on public services and 69 percent admitted to not knowing who their local councilor was.
Respondents displayed the least knowledge about environmental services such as removing a burnt out car, clearing rubbish tipped in the street, clearing an obstructed pavement, removing graffiti or reporting a broken street light. Only 2 percent of respondents were able to identify these services as falling under the remit of their local council.
Services the public were most knowledgeable about included pest control (noisy neighbourhood animals), planning permission (a company digging up a road), crime and safety (vandalism in the local area) and parking (paying for a parking ticket).
"The breadth of services that local councils manage makes clear communication with citizens a complex challenge. Even when it comes to managing the basics such as incoming enquiries from the public, councils can struggle with routing calls effectively across multiple departments and locations.
Network based solutions such as Telewest Business' SRS Advanced Solutions have been designed to solve exactly this problem and give councils the ability to set-up clear information lines with freephone numbers supported by complex call routing. In addition this can provide councils with critical statistics to monitor inbound call traffic and gather intelligence to support marketing efforts on individual council services," added Small.
The study surveyed 504 people from 12 regions across the UK across different age groups. The regions covered included North West England, North England, West Midlands, East Midlands, South East England, London, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
For further information please go to: www.telewest.co.uk/clearercouncilcomms
-ends -
Notes to Editors
Telewest, the broadband communications and media group, currently passes and markets to 4.7 million homes and provides multi-channel television, telephone and internet services to 1.8 million residential customers and Telewest Business, the company's business division, supplies broadband communications to the public and private sector markets. Its content division, Flextech, is the BBC's partner in UKTV. Together they are the largest supplier of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market with a portfolio that combines wholly owned and managed channels, including the ten joint venture channels with the BBC. For further information go to http://mediacentre.telewest.co.uk
An alarming 73 per cent of people surveyed felt they were not getting value for money from their local authority for council tax contributions. A further one in five people polled rated local council services as below average with nearly 15 per cent slating them as rubbish.
The study also highlights that poor communication by local council services to citizens could be the overriding factor to blame for the public's dismay with council tax payments and more generally with local council services. Nearly three quarters of respondents said that they would feel they were getting better value from their council tax if they were better informed about which public services and amenities their council held responsibility for locally.
In addition, despite local authorities investing millions across the UK to improve basic public services and increase their accessibility through online initiatives, the Telewest Business survey also spotlighted online take up of public services remains slow. Although just over a third of respondents would like to be informed about new and existing services from their local council by email, only 7 per cent had contacted their council via a council web site.
"Local councils are failing to win public hearts as a lot of what they do remains invisible to citizens," said Christopher Small, Director of Public Sector at Telewest Business. "There is a communication breakdown between councils and the public and the risk is that citizens will not be giving councils the recognition they deserve. Councils need to review their communications infrastructure to ensure the public is better informed and the Government doesn't increase public dismay in the wake of future council tax reviews."
The Telewest Business study sought to examine whether the British public feels they are getting the most out of their local council. In the past few years there has been an explosion of new services being brought online by local councils in an effort to make life easier for their citizens. In light of this, the study also evaluated the public's overall level of awareness of local council services, information flow between local councils and their citizens and the public's preferred method of communication with their local authority.
Local authorities provide a range of public services from street cleaning to social services to cultural events. When respondents were presented with a list of public services and amenities provisioned by their local council as part of the study, less than 50 per cent of respondents overall were able to identify individual public services their council held responsibility for. For those services they were able to identify, over half of the people polled wouldn't know which council department to contact for assistance.
This was not surprising when, one in five people polled had never received a direct communication from their local council with information on public services and 69 percent admitted to not knowing who their local councilor was.
Respondents displayed the least knowledge about environmental services such as removing a burnt out car, clearing rubbish tipped in the street, clearing an obstructed pavement, removing graffiti or reporting a broken street light. Only 2 percent of respondents were able to identify these services as falling under the remit of their local council.
Services the public were most knowledgeable about included pest control (noisy neighbourhood animals), planning permission (a company digging up a road), crime and safety (vandalism in the local area) and parking (paying for a parking ticket).
"The breadth of services that local councils manage makes clear communication with citizens a complex challenge. Even when it comes to managing the basics such as incoming enquiries from the public, councils can struggle with routing calls effectively across multiple departments and locations.
Network based solutions such as Telewest Business' SRS Advanced Solutions have been designed to solve exactly this problem and give councils the ability to set-up clear information lines with freephone numbers supported by complex call routing. In addition this can provide councils with critical statistics to monitor inbound call traffic and gather intelligence to support marketing efforts on individual council services," added Small.
The study surveyed 504 people from 12 regions across the UK across different age groups. The regions covered included North West England, North England, West Midlands, East Midlands, South East England, London, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
For further information please go to: www.telewest.co.uk/clearercouncilcomms
-ends -
Notes to Editors
Telewest, the broadband communications and media group, currently passes and markets to 4.7 million homes and provides multi-channel television, telephone and internet services to 1.8 million residential customers and Telewest Business, the company's business division, supplies broadband communications to the public and private sector markets. Its content division, Flextech, is the BBC's partner in UKTV. Together they are the largest supplier of basic channels to the UK pay-TV market with a portfolio that combines wholly owned and managed channels, including the ten joint venture channels with the BBC. For further information go to http://mediacentre.telewest.co.uk