Voters twice as likely to trust local politicians to improve their area, polling shows

Voters are twice as likely to trust local politicians to improve their areas than national politicians, according to new polling published ahead of the local and mayoral elections next week.

As people across the country prepare to elect more than 5,000 councillors and ten metro mayors, new polling has shown many believe further devolution could help solve the issues faced in their regions.

More than a third (37%) of those polled said local government should have more power and resources to solve local issues, compared to just 11% who said it should have less.

Three in five of respondents (59%) said people’s lives had worsened in their local areas over the last ten years. Of these, 40% believe national government is responsible for that decline with only 13% blaming local government.

However, many believe local politicians are best placed to tackle the issues of their area. Two fifths (38%) of those polled think things would have been better in their area over the last ten years if local government had more power and resources, with only 15% thinking it would have made things worse.

The polling has been published today alongside a new report from Reclaiming Our Regional Economies (RORE), a programme developed by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), Co-operatives UK and the Centre for Thriving Places (CTP), which sets out how devolution can build stronger local economies.

Report author Tom Lloyd-Goodwin, Director of Policy and Practice at CLES, said:

“The government has made ​‘levelling up’ a clear mission to improve people’s lives across the country, but what we see are wide regional inequalities and a growing sense that things are getting worse.

“Rather than pitting councils against one another to compete for inadequate sums of money, it’s clear that people want to see more resources and more powers for the politicians who are there on the ground with them.

“In the context of a wider mistrust of politicians and the political institutions more generally, it is vital that we capitalise on the trust there is for local government. To do this we need to see national government give regions the power to build their own strong and sustainable economies through a fairer funding model, greater public participation in local decisions and encouraging innovation.”

ENDS

Contact

James Rush – james.rush@neweconomics.org

Notes

Reclaiming Our Regional Economies (RORE) is a five-year programme co-ordinated by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), Co-operatives UK and the Centre for Thriving Places (CTP). The programe brings communities together with political and institutional leaders to test ideas that help to re-wire and reform their regional economies.

The full report, Reclaiming our regions: How combined authorities can help to build more inclusive local economies, can be read here.

Polling details

Polling was conducted by Opinium on behalf of RORE from 10 – 12 April 2024. The poll sample was 2,098 UK adults, weighted to be nationally and politically representative of the UK adult population by: age x gender x education, region, working status, ethnicity, political attention,2019 general election vote, and EU referendum vote

Key findings:

• The public are more likely to trust local government (29%) than national government (14%) to improve their local area

• Over a third (37%) think local government should be given more power and resources to solve local issues

• Three in five (59%) think people’s lives in their local area have worsened in the last ten years, and of those who think this, 40% think national government is responsible vs 13% who think local government (36% think both are responsible).

• 11% think that people’s lives in the local area have improved in the last ten years; these people are more likely to attribute responsibility for this to local government (34%) than national government (27%), while a quarter (25%) think both are responsible

• Two fifths (38%) think things would have been better in their local area over the last 10 years if local government had more power and resources, while 29% felt it would have made no difference and 15% think it would have made things worse