Place Survey 2008
Headline results
The 2008 Place Survey provides information on people's perceptions of their local area and the local services they receive. This release summarises the headline findings for England and Government Office regions with results for individual local authorities shown in the accompanying tables. The survey collects information on 18 national indicators for local government, used to measure local government performance for 152 county councils, metropolitan district councils, London boroughs and unitary authorities. While the Place Survey is primarily intended for use at a local level, national and regional results are provided for benchmarking purposes.
Title: Place Survey: England - Headline Results 2008
Author: Department for Communities & Local Government
Number of pages: 19
Date published: June 2009
Availability: Download headline results report 
PDF 140Kb (see other formats)
The key points from the latest release are:
About your local area
- 80% of the population were satisfied with their local area as a place to live
- 59% felt they belong to their immediate neighbourhood
% either very or fairly satisfied with local area as a place to live, by Government Office region and England | |||
North East | 77% | East of England | 83% |
North West | 77% | London | 75% |
Yorkshire & the Humber | 79% | South East | 83% |
East Midlands | 80% | South West | 85% |
West Midlands | 78% | England | 80% |
Your local public services
- 33% agreed or strongly agreed that their local council provided value for money
- 45% were, taking everything into account, satisfied with the way their local council runs things
Awareness of civil protection arrangements in local area
- 15% of the population said that they were very well or fairly well informed about what to do in the event of a large-scale emergency e.g. flooding or human pandemic flu
Local decision-making
- 29% felt they could influence decisions in their local area
Helping out
- 23% had participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in the last twelve months
Getting involved
- In the last 12 months, 14% of the population had been involved in local decision-making (for example, being a member of a committee or groups relating to local services, education or standing as a local councillor)
Respect and consideration
- 31% of the population felt that there were problems with people in their local area not treating one another with respect and consideration
- 72% felt that they were treated with respect and consideration by local services
- 76% felt that people from different backgrounds got on well together in their local area
Community Safety
- 29% felt that drunk or rowdy behaviour was a problem in their area; for drug use or drug dealing the figure is 31%
- 25% felt that police and other local public services sought local people's views on community safety issues; and 26% felt that these bodies were successfully dealing with these problems
The full statistical release and accompanying tables, including regional and local authority data, are available below.
Getting a copy
Download headline results report in PDF format PDF 140Kb
Download headline results report in Word format 
Word 301Kb
Download headline table results in Excel format 
Excel 321Kb
Last update: Friday, June 26, 2009