Councils should benchmark their performance against businesses in the private sector, rather than other councils. This is the advice of Buckinghamshire CC's strategic director for business transformation and customer services, Ian Trenholm, who has urged councils to focus on how satisfied residents are locally, rather than focusing on ‘thousands' of internal indicators. ‘People have their own personal benchmarks and will compare the service they receive from their council with the service they receive from their bank or building society,' Mr Trenholm told The MJ. ‘We constantly use benchmarking against each other, but will one person care about services provided by another council in another area? We should focus on how satisfied residents are locally.' Programme director for improvement at the Local Government Association, Corin Thomson, said there was ‘clearly a need' to think about delivering services in a different way. But he added: ‘I wouldn't want to say all councils should be benchmarked against the private sector, as they are not always the best. Councils should look at whoever provides the best service, and see what can be learned.'