Two days before the deadline for the Government’s consultation on Local Authority Remote Meetings, national charity Speakers’ Corner Trust has published a report showing that the Covid-19 lockdowns and the restrictions imposed on local government business have had a positive impact on local democracy. Councils across England now await the decision of the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on whether these democratic gains can be sustained.
According to the research report, significantly more people have engaged with councils since March 2020, including logging in to council meetings, submitting questions remotely, and taking part in debate when previously caring responsibilities, a disability, or travel would have been barriers to participation.
However, the move online has created problems for those with little or no access to technology – giving rise to a potential ‘digital democracy postcode lottery’. The research among 50 English councils was carried out between February and April 2021, one year on from the first Covid-19 lockdown. Speakers’ Corner Trust (SCT), the national charity promoting freedom of expression, public debate and active citizenship, ran a parallel online survey of media reporters employed under the Local Democracy Reporting partnership which is managed by the BBC.
The research team also conducted online interviews with leading democracy campaigners and local government bodies. The research behind the report, ‘Covid-19 impact on local democracy - Citizens’ Participation in Local Decision-Making’, was funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. The project came out of a concern that the early pandemic lockdowns were severely restricting citizens’ access to local government decision-making at a time of national crisis. SCT was keen to discover whether, one year on, the accountability and public scrutiny of elected councillors and their officers had in any way been compromised.
The key research findings are that:
- Nine in ten councils perceived enhancements to local democracy as a direct result of online public meetings with available recordings (92%), councillors meeting online (90%) and new opportunities to communicate and interact online (88%). The majority of councils (64%) think Covid-19 has had a net positive impact on local democracy.
- Also, a majority of of local democracy reporters (56%) feel the impact of restrictions has enhanced democratic participation, although they are less positive than councils, citing concerns around meeting-technology failures, a lack of or slow response from officers to requests for information, and the exclusion of those with no access to the internet.
- 74% of councils report democratic enhancements in a higher public attendance due to meetings being held online, and citizens and communities wanting to engage more (72%).
- The main area of concern for councils (86% of those surveyed) is a compromise to democracy with some citizens being disadvantaged by not having online access.
The report concludes that councils need central government to facilitate the necessary changes in legislation or regulation to support online-only and hybrid approaches to formal council business. The ‘forced online experience’ has worked, councils have adapted and, ideally, citizens, communities and all stakeholder groups should have flexibility and choice in how they interact with councils and councillors in the future.
Chair and interim CEO of Speakers’ Corner Trust, Louise Third MBE, says: “Has the Covid-19 experience been a ‘shot in the arm’ for local democracy? I was convinced that the national lockdown in March 2020 would deal another hammer blow to local democratic engagement. Decades of disenchantment with politicians have left council chambers empty and many people disinterested and disengaged. This piece of research shows that some good has come out of the changes imposed on local councils by the pandemic. Now they must be allowed to continue to adapt and develop different ways to bring more people into decision-making. There must be no going back.”
Download the report here
