Council vow to put “residents at the heart of everything”
Council leaders have pledged to put “residents at the heart of everything” as they agreed a new customer strategy and received positive feedback from a recent survey with people living in the Borough.
At a meeting of Telford & Wrekin Council’s Cabinet today, Members heard how satisfaction with the Council is outperforming national averages. In a separate report the Cabinet also approved a new customer strategy 2025-30, which follows on from the authority becoming the first council in the country to receive the Institute of Customer Services accreditation earlier this year.
Councillor Lee Carter, Leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “We’re committed to putting residents at the heart of everything we do and carrying out a regular resident survey is one way we can hear from people as we look to continually improve our services to meet peoples’ needs.
“We’re pleased to see the positive feedback and delighted to see our services outperforming national averages – this is a real testament to our outstanding staff. However, we fully recognise there is always room for improvement and we are committed to keep working to protect, care and invest in those things our residents care about most.”
The resident survey, conducted from November 2024 to January 2025 heard from 1,384 people and results, on topics ranging from views on how things are run, to how well people feel informed as well as satisfaction with services such as recycling and waste, outperformed Local Government Association national benchmark figures.
Meanwhile, a new customer service strategy was also approved by the Cabinet at the meeting, which set outs a commitment to put people first by maintaining and improving access to the Council across digital, telephone and face-to-face channels.
The new strategy builds on the success of the 2021–2025 strategy, which culminated in Telford & Wrekin Council becoming the first local authority in the UK to receive the Institute of Customer Services’ ServiceMark accreditation in April 2025, recognising excellence in customer service.
Councillor Zona Hannington, Telford & Wrekin Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance & Customer Services, said: “This new strategy sets out our plans over the next five years and builds on the successful delivery of the previous plan which culminated in Telford becoming the first council in the country to receive the national accreditation.
“There are multiple ways people can contact organisations in today’s digital world and we have been keen to strike the right balance of exploring and trialling online opportunities, whilst also retaining the telephone and face-to-face options that we know are still valued and preferred by some of our residents.”
The customer strategy will now run through to 2030 with a report on progress due to go back to Cabinet in early 2028, whilst the Council has committed to carrying out a resident survey every other year to help track progress and inform how services are provided.
