Some in local government still struggle with being ‘placeshapers’. That much is clear from the reaction to the data from the place survey.

Rumour has it that, nationwide, satisfaction with the area has improved, while happiness with the council has declined. At a time when we are moving from seeing the core role of the council as being service delivery to being making places, this could be a lot worse. Of course, we would all prefer both of these measures to be improving, but I would much rather these trends than the reverse.

It can be hard to get your head round it, but in the era of CAA and LAAs, and as we face the urgent need to create places where our wellbeing is recession-proof and climate change-proof, we need to get used to the idea fast. It should matter more to members and officers that people are happy with their locality, than that they rate the Council highly. If local government can internalise this idea, then we will have become, at last, ‘first among equals’ in shaping our local places.

This is an example of how policy and practice can progress. When I was involved in the first place survey, it felt like a major advance to make public perception part of the assessment of local government, for two reasons. First, because hardnosed management information does not tell the whole story: 99% of refuse collections being on time is of limited value if residents don’t think the job is done properly. Second, because a large majority of performance indicators in place at the time were, frankly, not measures of quality: public perception gave a better measure of quality of service than many indicators at the time.

Now, though, things have moved on. At a time when making placeshaping real could not be more important, as we begin to shape communities for the post-carbon age, let’s not worry too much about the findings on council satisfaction and invest too much in developing council reputations. Understanding how people relate to their neighbourhoods and to other people is at the heart of the approach now being taken by the most cutting-edge councils, as opposed to the mass survey. These are the conversations we need to have with citizens in the future, to help shape future places. Because these are the conversations that will help councils work with citizens to develop the low-carbon and pro-social behaviour we need to have any chance of heading off runaway climate change. We have surely all worked out that behaviour change will not happen because “the council told me to”.

What people think of the Council as an organisation will matter less and less, so let’s not get hung up on it.