Council Plan - Understanding what is important to you

In 2019, the Council undertook extensive consultation and engagement to inform the Council Plan 2019-23. More recently, and led by the Corporate Strategy Team, we have needed to re-assess and re-prioritise our work to address the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our residents, businesses and local economy. In order to do this, we used the opportunity to gather views from residents using a survey to; understand how residents feel Covid-19 has impacted them and their community, learn what is most important to them now and hear what they think the Council could be doing to help. The online survey was promoted via the Council’s key communication channels as well as directly contacting voluntary and community organisations across the borough. The survey ran during April and May 2021.

• Respondents most valued safety first, followed by environment, health, housing and community.
• Reducing crime and antisocial behaviour was the most important issue for respondents followed by space for pedestrians and cyclists and air quality
• Over half (56 per cent) of respondents felt that environmental services should be prioritised by the Council, followed by parks and leisure services (55 per cent), mental health and wellbeing (53 per cent), roads and transport (50 per cent) and then health services (50 per cent)
• Over a half of respondents were worried about the impact that Covid has had
• A total of 23 per cent of respondents felt that social isolation and loneliness had been impacted the most by Covid, whilst the same amount felt that health and wellbeing had also been impacted the most
• Just under a half (45 per cent) of respondents felt that increasing green spaces could help support the recovery of Covid, as well as supporting local business (43 per cent), helping people to keep healthy (36 per cent) and supporting mental health and wellbeing (31 per cent).
• When asked how the Council can work better with local people to meet their needs, just over two thirds (68 per cent) want the Council to be transparent and open about decisions and two thirds (66 per cent) think we need to engage with residents about issues that matter to them. Just over half (52 per cent) would like to see solutions and services co-designed and co-produced with residents
• When considering how to improve local places and spaces, just under two thirds (63 per cent) believe we should reduce road traffic and increase spaces for walking and cycling, over half (52 per cent) said we need improve safety and reduce the fear of crime and 49 per cent want improvements to green spaces made.
• Around half of respondents said that to improve prospects for young people we need to improve and increase local employment and opportunities and improve and increase facilities and activities.
• In order to support people to gain new skills and get into work, over half (55 per cent) said we need to work with partners in London to increase available opportunities, 52 per cent said we need to connect local people with local job opportunities, 46 per cent think we should support people to reskill and 41 per cent think we should increase the amount of training available.
• Overall, a total of 18 per cent of respondents were very satisfied and 42 per cent fairly satisfied with Kensington and Chelsea as a place to live. And when asked how satisfied they were with how Kensington and Chelsea Council run things, six per cent were very satisfied and around a quarter (24 per cent) were fairly satisfied.

The ideas, priorities and suggestions provided by our residents through this survey have now directly shaped the recently refreshed Council Plan, by enabling us to test our focus and commitments. The Plan responds to what has happened over the past 18 months, and how we want to support our communities to recover.

The Council Plan continues to have many of the same priorities, particularly around our green ambition, having safer and cleaner streets and building new housing, but also now includes new priorities that have emerged, especially in relation to our local economy, employment opportunities and in physical and mental health, responding to the input from our residents.

The Plan continues to describe how we will ‘narrow the gap’, now specifically in relation to supporting our most vulnerable residents and those who have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, for example young people and those who are socially isolated. With residents being clear they want us to focus our support for those who are now in need of finding secure and stable work and businesses who need to recover, the Plan describes how we intend to provide this support and lists some key outcomes that we want to achieve and see in our communities, such as the revival of our local economy.

Next Steps

Being able to update out Council Plan now will ensure we are focusing our time and resources on the issues that matter most to residents.

In line with the Council’s commitment to the Charter for Public Participation, we will continue our conversations with residents when developing strategies such as the Council Plan and engage with them as part of the process to assess our performance and the delivery of these priorities.