Council Tax Games

The old song asks ‘do you know the way to San Jose?’ but the real question is ‘do you know the way, San Jose?’ when it comes to engaging citizens in local authority budgets. The Californian city has come up with a unique way of targeting its population to improve democratic processes through an online ‘Innovation’ game. Councils in the UK and elsewhere are trying similar initiatives, but do they work?

An online, local authority version of Sim City, these games aim to capture imaginations while users learn about budgets by putting the responsibility of funding their city’s needs directly in their hands. Players begin the game by examining different areas of council spending and then make a choice over which services should see funding cut or increased. For example, they can choose to make cuts to children’s services in order to spend more on housing, spend less on maintaining roads and more on fire services or simply up council tax.

With around 80 per cent of UK residents now online, direct communication is easy and instantaneous with just a click of a button. While presenting information in a straight-forward and fun ‘game’ format may seem like a more effective way to encourage residents to really become engaged in crucial policy choices than the posting of information on a website, these council tax games may present skewed results.

One such UK version of the game from YouGov, which was developed with Redbridge and the LGA shows that on average, those who have played it have chosen to lower council tax by 13%. However, if we look at why particular choices were made over spending cuts it is clear that problems arise with the model.

Firstly, selections made in the game are influenced by the services those people completing it use themselves. This means that some important service cuts are made simply because the player has no personal need to use them.

Secondly, options that sound bureaucratic get cut dramatically, while those that immediately sound like front-line help, are saved. For example, if one option reads that the budget for “services for care of vulnerable people” is £80m; participants will choose to keep it. When more details are given and the option instead reads “services for care of vulnerable people is £70m and salary costs for adult services senior managers is £10m” - the £10m gets cut.

The best way to do budget consultation properly, if you wish to involve people in the detail rather than base it on known priorities, is to hold face-to-face workshops for a day. The morning is covered identifying priorities and the issues that bug residents, and an hour is spent explaining the budget. In the afternoon you go through the detail and as participants understand the complexities of the budget and the services provided their minds usually change from their initial thoughts.  Reports can then be written to help to guide the council on the decisions made

Since the credit crunch, councils have moved into heavily consulting residents over budgets in a variety of ways, however perfunctory budget consultations can harm credibility so it is essential that the methods used are effective.

An important part of communications is helping people understand that tough choices have to be made when it comes to budgets.  While it doesn’t take away from the need for local politicians to make final decisions, workshops can help produce agreed thinking between residents and the council.

Council tax games can be useful as tools of discussion, enabling residents to become more involved and informed in the working of the budget and while they can work, games around other issues or gaming experiences such as these which set people tasks, may be more practical.

Tackling the hoodies: it’s a family affair

“MUG a hoodie!” declared the Mail on Sunday recently as it set the scene for a get-tough speech by David Cameron on the prison system and offending. The reference is of course an inversion of “Hug a hoodie” – the famous headline attributed to the Prime Minister when, in 2006, he suggested a more understanding attitude to our troubled young people.

Mugging or hugging hoodies – both are sharp hooks which will get coverage. But as councils know, behind the headlines, criminal behaviour is generally the product of a complex pattern of local factors. Housing, school exclusion, employment, leisure facilities – all of these mesh to produce the tough estates and problem areas that all local authorities contend with.

Criminals do not enter the world fully formed; they are a product of their environment and upbringing. It’s therefore important to look at families as a whole in responding to criminality and cutting reoffending as the central government’s recent troubled families initiative acknowledges.

Westminster and the other Tri Borough authorities have their own share of deprivation and social challenges. So it was logical to put a focus on helping families at the centre of our Community Budget proposals. This started from the pioneering and often imitated Westminster Family Recovery Programme (FRP), launched in 2008. This has gone on to form the blueprint for family intervention work in many other local authorities and also influenced the national programme.

The FRP has the aim of supporting local families with complex needs and who might be at risk of reoffending by forming a team of specialists around the family to reflect each family’s circumstances. The programme isn’t cheap - each family on it costs about £19,500 a year - but we know it works. In a study of families where crime and disorder were a major concern, the average number of ‘suspected offences’ they were involved in fell from nine in the year before FRP intervention to just one and a half afterwards. The scheme has also resulted in reduced numbers of families with rent arrears, improved health and reduced incidents of anti-social behaviour. It has also arguably improved the quality of life for residents in the surrounding neighbourhood. What’s more, Westminster calculates that for every £1 it spends on a family in the scheme, £2.10 is saved from the public purse in the form of avoided costs.

The Community Budget proposal just submitted takes this on by developing the Westminster service into a Tri Borough model with a “Stronger Families” proposal which will set up a ‘triage’ and key worker arrangement for families who need help below the intensive level delivered by FRP. But to make this work it requires all the relevant central and local government agencies to pool funds to create the service and then benefit from the outcomes in terms of less crime, more people in work and fewer benefits paid.

We also make curbing adult reoffending one of the key proposals within the Community Budgets proposal. Under this part of the plan, we will channel more resources into the rehabilitation of offenders sentenced to short prison terms of less than 12 months, because both the national and local picture shows that short-term prisoners are disproportionately more likely to reoffend.

Troubled families and young people veering into criminality are problems for all councils. At Westminster we don’t claim to have a panacea, but we have hopefully made useful inroads into addressing this complex issue. We look forward to the response from government.

Power to the People

In the last few days, an uneasy fog has descended over London.

Whilst it is not yet freezing cold, that murkiness is set to spread into homes across the UK as we all start to turn up the heat and pay more on our bills, but without the guarantee that we are getting value for money.

Energy providers all make profit, yet bills seem to keep on rising year on year. To many consumers the numbers just don’t seem to add up and there is an eagerness to do something about it.

Local Government could be about to change things. In a time of austerity it is the simple things like, food, warmth and a roof over our heads that really matter and the coalition Government has begun to recognise this.

Just this week energy minister Ed Davey lent his support to a new scheme aimed at putting the power back into consumers’ hands.

Under the same murky skies of London at the Local Government Association, Mr Davey shared the stand with Cllr Arooj Shah, the leader of Oldham City Council, on Tuesday as they highlighted a new scheme to bring down the price of energy.

In what can only be described as a ‘Groupon-style’ project Oldham has devised a Collective Energy Scheme to chop energy bills by as much as £150 through bulk-buying.

People sign-up to register their interest in combining their purchasing power to bulk-buy and Oldham’s switching partner iChoosr will then run an online energy auction with UK providers to get a cheaper deal on gas and electricity

Just like a supermarket, the more you buy of a product, the cheaper the price – and the more people that opt in the more discount is achieved.

What is interesting is that this project is something that can be led at a very local level, by authorities who want to make a difference to resident’s lives this winter, and beyond.

It illustrates that working with the private sector is the way forward, to not only make the necessary savings in the public sector but to also provide higher quality services and pass on value for money to taxpayers.

"Can you show me the way to the housing department?"

“Do you know the way to the housing department?” The query from the two men who stopped me in Victoria Street in London could at first have seemed an innocuous one.

The two men, speaking with East European accents, asked directions to Westminster’s housing department – followed by Ealing and Camden’s. They explained that “if we go there, they will give us a house.”

The encounter was truly stunning. This was not a feverish immigrant-baiting story cooked up by a newspaper, but a real-life encounter. Clearly there is a belief among some arriving in the UK that there is a bonanza in free council properties: simply turn up in the reception of civic centre and you will get a ticket to instant accommodation.

My own council found itself recently splashed across the front page of the Daily Express on just this subject after a Bulgarian family of nine camped out in front of Westminster Cathedral and we carried out our legal duty to find temporary accommodation because children were involved (let me declare a personal interest here – my wife is the cabinet member responsible for children, young people and community protection).

I suspect the front counter staff of local authority housing departments across the country might recognise echoes of my Victoria Street meeting in their daily dealings with the public. It is not pandering to closet xenophobia to suggest that the middle England mantra of “soft touch benefits Britain” may contain an element of truth.

When residents on council estates read stories about migrants arriving in the country and being instantly given council or hostel accommodation, it makes their blood boil. Why bother to patiently play the waiting game, they might think, when you can play the system instead and get quicker results?

The task for councils is not easy, but it is clear. There are three things local authorities should do.

First, we need to explain to residents that councils have a legal duty in some cases – where children are involved, for example – to provide emergency housing. That is not politically correct favouritism towards any minority; it is the law of the land.

Second, if national rules mean we have this responsibility, councils need funding to meet it. In Westminster, we believe the 2011 census woefully underestimated our population to the point where we will lose up to £15 million a year in funding. There are 6,900 short-term migrants we know about in Westminster. How many more, like my two friends on Victoria Street, are pitching up, using services that cost the council but are not being funded by central Government?

Third, councils need to illustrate by example that, most of the time, houses do go to local families and individuals with a legitimate need. My council has 3,100 households on the waiting list and we do our level best with a shortage of stock and ever increasing demand to ensure the deserving get a roof over their heads. I am sure your council does the same.

Contrary to urban myth, councils do not hand out properties without demur to new arrivals in the UK without checks or challenge. Westminster has already used the new anti-squatting rules to recover a family home from someone who had illegally lived there for two months.

But councils need to be clear to central Government that our services are under colossal strain and this is being exaggerated by arrivals from EU and non-EU countries. This is a problem which needs a national focus. In parts of the country, not only housing departments but primary schools are buckling as they try to cope with ever bigger numbers. It is not overstating the case to suggest the end of this road is a breakdown in the social fabric unless we take careful action.

I have no idea what happened to the two people I met in Victoria Street. They may have been lost; but they pointed out a clear issue to me.

Will the return of local TV revive local reporting?

The news that media companies are showing a keen interest in acquiring licences to run local TV services in 21 towns and cities across the UK could not come at a more significant moment for the PR industry.

Consider that in 2011, more than 30 weekly papers shut and several well established dailies became telescoped into weekly editions – the Exeter Express and Echo and the Liverpool Post among them.

That trend continues relentlessly. Regional publishers which once regarded their provincial titles as classified advertising cash cows continue to retrench and amalgamate (Johnston Press has just announced it is cutting a further three weekly editors as I write this). Reporters work for ever increasing numbers of titles now often subbed in remote ‘hubs’ by editors who, however well meaning, may have little knowledge of the local issues involved.

The result is that the news ecology is now wildly out of kilter. As regional news groups progressively withdraw from local reporting, there are fewer journalists out there gathering news at the coal face. Television and radio – traditionally heavily reliant upon local papers for story leads - have fewer items to lift. News agencies based in provincial big cities – whose typical role is to do much of the leg work for London-based national newspapers – remain one of the few newsgathering operations with a regional presence.

So it is an intriguing development that major companies are bidding to work in the troubled world of local media. These are serious players with names like ITN, Press Association, the Evening Standard and STV throwing their hats in the ring.

The pill is sugared by the fact the Government will fund some of the infrastructure costs of setting these stations up (via the licence fee), but these commercial groups are interested because they see a return on their investment through local advertising.

The key issue for local Government is whether a new network of local TV operators will lead to a meaningful increase in grass roots newsgathering. The Evening Standard has already said it will use its 120 journalists to form the basis of a bid. But will the areas of the country where regional print journalism has effectively withered see an influx of local TV journalists digging up local scoops?

I hope that local television does create a meaningful platform for councils to speak to local people. While we are witnessing a seismic shift in how people consume media, the fact is that council communicators have the eternal task of explaining what their councils are doing and why. If local broadcasting can provide the medium, we’ll provide the message.

What can local government do to enhance happiness?

Probably bored of trying to count people correctly, given the myriad problems with the Census calculation, the ONS have moved into new territory – that of assessing ‘happiness’.

Their new and fascinating “First ONS Annual Experimental Subjective Well-being Results” report shows how happy, unhappy, anxious and fulfilled we feel.

The headline results are clear, three quarters of people are satisfied with their lives and 80% think that they lead worthwhile lives.  Around one in twenty reports been in a state of apparently permanent unhappiness. Londoners are the most anxious, with 44% reporting that they felt anxious yesterday.

It’s also worth noting that while the Welsh are apparently marginally more satisfied than the rest of the British Isles, there is really very little difference across the UK in satisfaction, happiness or anxiety scores.

But an analysis of the full results does reflect issues that we know are central to the business of local government. The survey reports that Black respondents to the survey reported lower life satisfaction. It says that health and disability reduce satisfaction and that life events such as divorce and unemployment all reduce people’s satisfaction.

The fact that middle aged men appear to be the least satisfied with their lives, compared to the higher satisfaction of the young and of pensioners under 80 years old, might ring true when we consider the sense of apathy demonstrated by some middle-aged middle tier council managers.

This is the first such survey though, but it would be interesting to consider how the numbers would have changed since ten years previously. We might consider that the benign early post-millennium years would have produced more positive results which could be compared with the 2011 figures.

This data should remind local authorities to consider these well being issues when they are developing policies and designing services. We need to be aware that people are anxious, that many of the people we serve do not work in the relatively comfortable environment of a council, nor have the sort of professional and managerial roles that provide greater personal satisfaction. 

Their insecurities and fears about the future need to be addressed by local government working to reassure them. We need to show that we are focused on getting the basics of service provision right on a daily basis, working hard to bring jobs and investment to our areas and avoid the convoluted and confusing language to ‘engagement’, of strategies and ‘commissioning’ in public conversation.

And data like this allows us to put people, and their concerns at the centre of our policy formulation rather than government guidance.    

Civic Olympic Legacy

Legacy is a word that has become synonymous with the build to up the 2012 Olympic Games, but what does this actually mean at local authority level?

As Westminster prepares to play the host to millions of visitors everyday this summer, many of our long term attentions are already turning to how we can use the this opportunity to utilise the games to benefit our residents.

Health and sport are the obvious agenda items for authorities across the UK – right here in London we are currently spending £300,000 to improve the historic Paddington athletics track where Roger Bannister trained for his famous four-minute mile.

But pride is a British spirit that should not be underestimated at a time like this. The Olympics, coupled with the Queen’s diamond jubilee, gives us all the inspiration to make the most of what our areas have to offer.

Right now, councils across the Olympic host sites, from Weymouth to Wembley, are engaged in a clean-up operation to get them looking better than ever before, and also concentrating on making sure all the arrangements, including road closures and parking changes are accurately and openly communicated to the public.

This is important.

But, once the razzmatazz is over, local authorities will only have a few months to capture the spirit that is enveloping the UK and use it to give communities and individuals a renewed sense of civic pride and participation in sport.

Each area will want to do this in their way.

In Westminster we’ll be working with neighbourhoods to improve their streets, running community awards and redoubling our efforts to promote sports through ‘Active Westminster’.

Right now Local Government has a golden, or maybe even a diamond, opportunity to help create a lasting environment similar to what we are seeing during this summer.

Authorities that haven’t yet established them should create annual events, in particular civic pride awards. They should reward those in the community who really make a difference to the lives of other people and the areas they frequent or inhabit.

The Olympics are coming, we are all prepared – but let’s use it to shape attitudes, help those that need it, and allow us all to take pride in our local areas. That should be the lasting legacy.