Policy Hub
On 21 August 2008, the New Local Government Network (NLGN) published a report (Local counts: the future of the census) which argues that the census cannot accurately reflect the true state of Britain because of poor quality information on households, high rates of population mobility and a growing reluctance to fill in official forms.
Figures based on the census are used to allocate £100 billion of government spending for local authorities and primary care trusts. The report highlights several failures of the census system over the past decade, observing that:
It proposes that Britain should follow the example of other European countries, such as the Netherlands, who have moved to a reliance on administrative databases to provide a continually updated ‘rolling’ register.
The report finds that many public organisations already collect data and information on citizens from a variety of sources and it notes that these can be supplemented by targeted surveys to profile the population and its needs.
The report suggests that NLGN’s proposed alternative would yield significant savings on the current £500 million cost of the census. It argues that the new system could save at least £250 million, which could be better spent by giving each top-tier council £1 million for targeted engagement and communication with vulnerable and disengaged sections of the community.