News & Insights
Leadership leanings – New information on Councillors strengthens the case for making them pivotal in local public engagement
There are lots of issues emerging right now about the way Government departments and their agencies consult the public … and many of them are on important matters of policy.
But it is at local level that public engagement really makes a difference, and it is for this reason that the newly-published National Census of local authority councillors in England is so fascinating.
Here are some interesting snippets from the data
? Councillors are getting older, (average age now 58.8!) more likely to be retired (now 43.5%), predominantly male (68%) and white (96.6%!)
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Rhion Jones
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