Throughout 2010 and 2011, local government sustained a prolonged aerial PR bombardment from many quarters which led many local government communicators to feel under siege. Town hall tali-bin snoopers, fat cat pay, tales of health and safety excess – the reputation of local authorities took a fearsome pounding.The findings of the latest research on the reputation of local government from LGinsight/Populus, released at the LGComms conference in Birmingham, are therefore all the more heartening. The headline is that the reputation of local government is robust, despite what is often held to be a prevailing mood of public cynicism about councils. In May 2012, seven in ten (70%) Britons say they are satisfied with the way their council is running things – the same proportion we saw back in October 2010 when this series of polling started (69%). Remember, this is at the same time as YouGov show that approval of what the Government is doing has halved from 42% to 24% from May 2010 to now, and disapproval has increased from 22% to 62%. So what are councils doing right? The basics, thankfully. Satisfaction with street cleansing has gone from 67% to 73% between January 2011 and now and refuse collection satisfaction has gone from 73% to 85% over the same period (and this from a slump in January 2011 when snow and ice hit services.)Before mild euphoria sets in, there is however a warning sign ahead of this winter. Only 40% of the public believe the standards of our roads are satisfactory and pavements aren’t doing much better at 52%. Money spent on fixing potholes will continue to be money well spent.On a general note, the media reporting of councils appears more benign. The proportion of those who believe media coverage of their council is positive or neutral has gone from 61% to 71% in just under a year. Why might this be? One reasonable assumption is that the candid discussions over cuts to council services played out in local newspapers, radio stations and television bulletins across the land have raised awareness of the full range of things that a council actually does. In a pre-credit crunch era, the public and local journalists might have been unaware that councils actually provided some of these services.Local government communicators, who in many authorities have led consultation and engagement with residents over the future of services, might reasonably claim some credit for this. From October 2010 to June 2011 there was a fall in resident perceptions that local councils took account of residents’ views when making decisions (from 47% to 40%). That has now edged back up to 45%. This is an encouraging sign that residents feel they are being listened to, although there is much more to do. The LGinsight/Populus poll underlines some eternal truths about reputation and how we maintain it. Reputation is underpinned by three things: keeping people informed; focusing on value for money; and on getting core service delivery right. The public seem to have ignored some of the wilder excesses of council-bashing in the media and are giving us a considered hearing. They generally believe we do a good job.All more important, then, that we seize on this residual goodwill to engage, explain - and above all deliver.
