A Survey on the Future Impact of Covid19 on Local Government

Since March local government has been on a ‘war footing’ in its response to the Covid crisis. Residents have seen more clearly what their councils do on a daily basis and how this can impact their lives directly. We have also seen councils, sometimes known for being bureaucratic, act with extreme pace, doing things in days that in the past may have taken months.

To look beyond the present situation and consider what it is telling us about the future for local government we conducted a survey of Chief Executives and other senior officers in local authorities across the country to get their views on the scale of change they think will be required as we emerge from the current situation. We looked at a range of aspects beyond the perilous future financial position, from the services to the staff, and some common themes arose, both on the magnitude of the challenge, the aspects that will require attention and the opportunities that it may present.

We hope you find the findings of interest, we will build on these findings in our future conversations with local authorities to keep developing this emerging picture, refining and adapting as we go to help make sense of the new world we find ourselves in.

To download the survey findings, click on the link below.

C.Co: The Future of Local Government – No Way Back