APSE has recently published the results of a new survey, conducted on their by behalf by Survation, which asked residents what they thought about how money is spent on their behalf.
Local refuse and recycling services are valued the most highly by the public out of all council services, but people also ranked support for other council services, like school meals, local council leisure facilities such as swimming pools, gyms and playing fields and parks. Another top priority for investment is local roads, and the public want to see more spent on improvements such as reducing the amount of pot holes. However, APSE warns that the public are now starting to see the impact of austerity, with a sizeable chunk of survey respondents reporting a decline in their local services, with the majority of councils just about managing to keep much-valued local services going.
As the above emphasises, people are calling for money to be spent more locally - which means that Chancellor Philip Hammond is out of step with voters: over three quarters of those questioned preferred money to be spent in their localities rather than on super infrastructure schemes. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn statement additional borrowing of £23 billion over the next five years to be targeted on infrastructure, but people are more likely to trust local councillers to make financial decisions on their behalf over and above MPs and Government Ministers. In fact, 5 times more people trust councils over and above Government to make the best decisions on their behalf. There is a lack of trust in private providers as well; the public are 6 times more likely to trust council-run services over and above private contractors brought in to run council services.
The survey suggests that the public would welcome localised infrastructure investment. 62% do not think that enough of their tax is spent on services in their local area and 77% would like the government give more money to local councils to spend at the local level. A significant section of the poplulation perceive a decline in local services in their areas and indicate that they consider councils have managed local services well in spite of the high level of cuts meted out by government.
Speaking about the survey findings, APSE Chief Executive Paul O'Brien said "Whilst the extra infrastructure spending promised by the Chancellor is welcome in areas like housing and roads, it is clear that the public want to see more money going to local areas. Local spending is proven to be a great way to bolster economic activity in local areas, so clearly there is an awful lot of good to come from leveraging more local investment through trusted council neighbourhood services."
