Ipsos MORI have some new data from New Deal for Communities programmes, which were presented by Bobby Duffy at a Shared Intelligence seminar this evening. He included an analysis that appears to suggest that the most important factor for people who expressed satisfaction with their area, was that 'people are friendly.'
The negative factors were all about disorder - gangs, vandalism, evidence of drugs etc. Pointedly, as Bobby showed, there was no reference to any aspect of 'influence' or 'involvement' (or community engagement) as a factor related to satisfaction.
The implication seems to be that if you invest a lot in helping local people to get involved, to the extent that they feel they are able to influence decisions and change, you still cannot necessarily expect them to feel more satisfied with where they live.
Whereas, it would seem, were you to invest in people being friendly to one another (and get results from that investment), you could expect that to show up in your satisfaction survey in a couple of years time. Yet another argument for more street parties and new ways of promoting neighbourliness? It does seem as if social relations and behaviour at local level are gradually coming to be perceived as being of significance.
