This week sees the publication of the findings from the Ealing Residents Survey 2022 ,your views on council services and where you live.

The findings provide a picture of how the borough has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, how residents feel about their local area, their top individual and household concerns as well as a sharp focus on how well people think that the council is serving them.

Feedback from the survey

Some key findings include:

• Residents who responded were much happier with their local area as a place to live than across London as a whole – 84% were satisfied compared with the London average of just 65%.
• People most often mention that to make local areas even better they would like to feel safer, have more affordable housing available, and see improvements to street and local area cleaning and refuse collection services.

The strength of community really shone through, with 79% of residents agreeing that people in their local area work together to improve it – much higher than the London average of just 46%.

The cost of living is of greatest concern for most households (55%), and more than one third say that their household is ‘just about managing’.

After financial concerns, the next most important issues for households are physical health and wellbeing and access to GP and healthcare services.

Many residents are taking action that helps tackle the climate crisis. 72% say that they walk for most short, regular journeys, and almost three quarters say that they take other measures to help protect the environment.

The survey results are a really important way for the council to hear from residents about how they experience our services. Nearly three quarters of residents (72%) are satisfied with the way the council runs things – much higher than in national polling (58%).

Overall satisfaction with the majority of ‘universal services’ is strong particularly in relation to rubbish collection, parks and open spaces, playgrounds, street lighting.

Listening and acting

Council Leader Peter Mason said: “Since I took over as leader, we have been changing how the council operates to make it more open, inclusive and transparent. That starts by always ensuring that we’re listening to what the residents of our borough are telling us and acting on those concerns.

“The residents survey results are some of the best we’ve ever had, and tells us very clearly what we know to be the case. We love our communities, our towns and our neighbourhoods, and everyone is desperately proud to play their part in securing thriving community. But it can still be better.

“Whether it is the cost of living crisis and the need to secure good well paid jobs, building more genuinely affordable homes, or investing in tackling crime and antisocial behaviour, we’re continuing to ensure we act on the priorities that matter the most to people, and deliver real change to make things better.”

You can view the results of the Resident Survey, on the council’s website.

How the survey was carried out

The Resident Survey was carried out by Lake Research, an independent market research company during November and December last year. 1,250 face-to-face interviews were conducted randomly across the borough, with measures to make sure that the final sample accurately reflected the whole population of the borough. The size of the sample and the survey method used means that we can be confident that the results provide a very good picture of residents’ opinions.

The survey allows the council to compare changes from the last resident survey (carried out in 2018) and to measure satisfaction against surveys of other local authority areas.

On key issues, such as the way the council runs things, trust in the council and how people feel about their neighbourhoods, the survey shows that satisfaction among residents is high.

What happens next

The survey results are being reviewed in detail to look at how and where services can be improved and to inform future consultation and engagement with residents. Findings are also being shared with public service partners. A further Resident Survey is being planned for Autumn 2023, so that improvements can continue to be measured.

In the coming weeks we will also be publishing a series of highlights of topics covered by the survey.