Release Date: 11/07/2008
A recent poll carried out by Ipsos MORI has indicated that Richmond upon Thames residents are increasingly satisfied with how the Council is managing the borough. Significantly the results show a marked increase in a number of key indicators over the last major survey that was carried out 18 months ago.
69% of residents now say they are satisfied with how the Council runs things. This is up from 64% when the last survey was carried out and among the very highest in London. 61% of residents feel the Council provides value for money while over three quarters (77%) feel well informed about what the council is doing.
Commenting on the result of the MORI survey, which was carried out in February and March, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Serge Lourie said:
“These results are very encouraging and they seem to indicate that we are moving in the right direction. In the last 18 months the number of residents who are broadly satisfied with what we are doing has risen from 61% to 69%.
“I am particularly pleased with our Value for Money rating which has risen from 35% last time to 61% now. This is among the highest ratings achieved by any Council in the country and bears out our score of four out of four which the Audit Commission has given us for the last two years in succession – also for Value for Money.
“The value for money score is particularly important for us as we get so little money from the government and subsequently have a high Council Tax. We need to make sure that we spend Council tax payer’s money wisely and make every pound count.
“This survey also indicates that 77% of our residents feel informed about what we do. Again this is a very good score but it is not all positive – only 46% are aware of what we are doing to tackle climate change. Given this is a major priority for us it is disappointing and we will be redoubling our efforts to make sure that people know exactly what we are doing in this key area.”
The poll was carried out between 6 February and 24 March by Ipsos MORI. A random sample of 4,000 households was surveyed. In total 1,208 completed questionnaires were returned representing an response rate of 30%.