The determinants of public trust in English local government: how important is the ethical behaviour of elected councillors?

Abstract

One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in integrity research is understanding whether regulatory interventions designed to improve the ethical conduct of public bodies actually have any effect on public trust. In this article, we present the results of research which has sought to unpack this issue. Drawing on a large-scale public survey and case study analysis of nine local councils in England, the research examined the relative importance of ethical conduct (whether elected councillors displayed good behaviour) on public trust in local government. We found that contextual factors (such as the size of the population and its social and ethnic diversity) and the ethical standards and behaviour of councillors were among the more important determinants of public trust. The most important variable in explaining levels of public trust was how a council performed. Points for practitioners One of the aims of ethics regulation is to improve levels of trust by promoting changes in behaviour and providing some reassurance for the public. Our results show that councils with low levels of councillor misconduct and good performance generally enjoy higher levels of public trust. The behaviour of councillors and whether they told the truth were important determinants of public trust, but ‘good conduct’ is not always narrowly ‘caused’ by ethics regulation; rather, it may reflect the culture of an organization. Public trust is also determined by a range of contextual variables which are difficult for public institutions to steer.