Scottish Household Survey returns profoundly mixed results on Highland Council as improving marks still fail to top 50% of people approving of the local authority’s job performance
Highland Council’s job performance has – despite improving results – still failed to reach above the 50 per cent mark in numbers that go back to 2007.
The Scottish Household Survey returns are therefore profoundly mixed for the local authority though they show strong indications part of the problem may lay elsewhere.
The questions ranged from whether ‘my local council provides high quality services’ to ‘my local council does the best it can with the money available’ to ‘my local council is addressing the key issues affecting the quality of life in my local neighbourhood’.
They also included responses to issues of local democracy like ‘I can influence decisions affecting my local area’ and ‘I would like to be more involved in the decisions my council makes that affect my local area’.
As can be seen from the interactive survey above, the responses varied greatly over time but whether people agreed with the statement that the local authority delivers good services generally hovered around the 30-40 per cent mark.
And that is bad news for Highland Council because those saying they agreed with the mostly positively-inclined statements never came close to a majority of respondents in the region.
In short, it is like getting 30-40 per cent right in the test – which isn’t even a pass mark though far from uncommon by local authority standards in Scotland – but there was some understanding of the council’s predicament.
Its lowest rankings for that issue was 35 per cent in 2008, 33 per cent in 2014, and 34 per cent in 2019 while its highest ratings were achieved in 2010 (41 per cent), 2018 (41 per cent) and the most recent in 2023 (43 per cent).
Whether the council is good at addressing the quality of life locally never rose above 34 per cent, again its most recent mark and dipped to 24 per cent in 2014 which was its lowest.
On the thorny issue of listening before taking decisions it has improved hugely but its most recent rating saw its highest ever with 29 per cent able to agree with that statement – previously lows saw it hit 14 per cent again in 2014.
But perhaps the two statements that raised the most interesting results were ‘my local council does the best it can with the money available’ and ‘I would like to be more involved in the decisions my council makes that affect my local area’.
For the first, the number rose steadily, though it did drop back between 2013 and 2014, from a low of 35 per cent to a high of 48 per cent in 2023 indicating the public is aware of funding issues.
That the Scottish Government has not sufficiently funded councils has been a constant refrain from Scotland’s local authorities for quite a number of years – whether you agree or disagree, that is a message that has gained traction.
And regarding whether people would like to be more involved, simply it has fallen off a cliff indicating widespread voter apathy – in 2008 it stood at 43 per cent, the most recent result is the second lowest at 24 per cent.
The full statements from the Scottish Household Survey
• My local council provides high quality services
• My local council does the best it can with the money available
• My local council is addressing the key issues affecting the quality of life in my local neighbourhood
• My council is good at listening to local people's views before it takes decisions
• My local council designs its services around the needs of the people who use them
• My council is good at letting local people know how well it is performing
• My local council is good at letting people know about what services it provides
• I can influence decisions affecting my local area
• I would like to be more involved in the decisions my council makes that affect my local area.