LEICESTER residents are being urged to take part in an important survey before it closes on 17 December.
The Leicester Household Survey 2021 is gathering information about people’s housing circumstances, how people’s lives have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, how they find out about council services and how they like to be communicated with.
The aim is to find out more about what Leicester residents need, which will help the council to shape and deliver services effectively in the future.
Staff are knocking on doors across the city to ask householders a range of questions. There’s also the chance to take part by filling in the survey online, at consultations.leicester.gov.uk
Miranda Cannon, director of delivery, communications and political governance at Leicester City Council, said: “We’ve already had a good response to our survey, with more than 3,000 people taking part so far. However, we want to get up to 4,000 responses, because the more responses we get, the more accurate a picture we can build up. A 4,000-strong sample of Leicester’s population will give us statistically significant results.
“Next year, we will get data on Leicester’s population when the Census 2021 findings are published. However, this will only provide insights up to a point and we need to find out more about our growing city to help us be responsive in the way we deliver our services.
“We particularly need to understand the extent to which our residents have access to the internet and are able to use our online services, so that we can establish what might be needed to support those who are not able to get online. It is vital that our approach does not exclude key groups or communities.
“We also want to know how residents prefer to access national and local news and information so that we can focus on the most effective ways of communicating important messages in future.”
Respondents will reflect a wide variety of backgrounds and communities, and be widespread in relation to age, sex, race and geographic location. All responses will be anonymised and no individual data will be shared.
City mayor Peter Soulsby said: “We know how hard the pandemic has been for many of our residents and we are committed to helping the most vulnerable people in our city, so this survey is also about finding out how our residents are coping financially and where we might need to target the support services we offer.
“Getting this sort of information is absolutely vital to help us apply for Government funding and spend our budget wisely – we need an accurate picture not just of how many people live here, but also how they live and what help they may need to live well.”
Door-knockers will be visiting residents up until the 17 December deadline to ask them to complete the survey. The online survey can be completed by any city resident, until 17 December, at consultations.leicester.gov.uk
Results from the survey will be made available through the council’s open data platform.
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