With recent increases in Council Tax, public satisfaction with the overall service provided by local authorities has fallen by 10 percentage points since 2000/01, to 55%. The figures come from the government's Best Value User Satisfaction Survey, a customer satisfaction survey which is carried out every three years, and this year received over 570,000 responses nationwide.
But waste and recycling services have bucked the trend, with 68% satisfied with waste recycling facilities in 2003/04 – up 2 percentage points – and 75% satisfied with waste disposal facilities, an improvement of 4 percentage points. However, satisfaction with household waste collections slipped slightly, by 2 percentage points to 84%.
Residents in the South West were most satisfied with their recycling facilities with a 72% approval rating, no change on the 2000 survey. The North East had the largest increase in satisfaction for recycling facilities – up 8 percentage points to 67% – while residents in London boroughs showed the least satisfaction for their recycling facilities – down 4 percentage points to 52% satisfaction.
Satisfaction with waste disposal (local tips) has increased across all authority types and all regions (the East and North East seeing improvements of 9 percentage points). For household waste collection the biggest decline in satisfaction has occurred in London Boroughs (down 3 percentage points) and in the East and East Midlands (down 4 percentage points).
Information
Commenting on the figures, local government minister Nick Raynsford said residents that were most satisfied by councils were those provided with up-to-date information on the services they provide.
He said: “This survey highlights the need for councils to provide better information and increase awareness of the services on offer. Those using council services continue to be the most satisfied. There is always room for improvement and now councils must step up their work on attracting new customers and changing outdated perceptions of what they do.”
The Local Government Association said that services including recycling are “holding their own despite serious shortfalls in government funding”, and said that since Council Tax had gone up by an average of 30% since the last survey, householders expect “better than 'more of the same' in areas such as rubbish collections”.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, chair of the LGA, said: “Despite their high visibility, environmental and cultural services often end up the 'poor man' of council funding, with their budgets squeezed by cash-hungry government priority areas such as education and social services.
“In spite of this, however, councils have faced up to the challenge and managed to hold up their own, with most showing either improvement or a small slippage in satisfaction of less than five percentage points.”
The full report, Best value user satisfaction surveys 2003/04 is available at the ODPM website.
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