Language has always been the ‘big gun’ of politics and in a time of declining faith in the traditional political organisations it is important that we examine how we interact with those we seek to represent. From a council perspective it has become very trendy to boast of having a ‘customer focus’ for their service delivery and refer to the residents we represent as clients or customers.

Before delving into the discussion, let me set a bit of personal context. While I am a Labour county councillor, I also own a small business which delivers services to customers and clients. I believe that local authorities can utilise practices from business in terms of leadership and strategy. But my experience of being both a councillor and a business owner has highlighted the similarities between local government and business, but, more significantly, the differences which we seem to willingly overlook. There is a drive, particularly seen through the current government cuts, for our council organisations to be business model-driven organisations, seen to have income, deliver services and be wedded to service delivery metrics. We move on to contracting out delivery of those services and with that offloading any risk onto delivery organisations making sure that any complaints are also offloaded to contracted organisations. This is all driven by the idea that we are providing services for customers, just like any other business.

Treating our residents like customers automatically encourages people to act like a customer. That is that you pay some money and you receive goods and services. Many residents who pay for potholes to be repaired and complain when it is not done get put through to the customer control centre, and either get palmed off with good excuses while underneath the problem is logged and put on a list.

There is a fundamental flaw in the council service delivery model, local government organisations are not simply businesses that should flex their service delivery. The elected representatives of the council that set strategy and are essentially a customer face of the council mean that it is not a standard business. The service delivery model for residents does not exist, because while councils can contract out to a preferred bidder, a resident does not have this option – they must pay for the council services, even if they do not use them. The fact that tax is levied on the customers to deliver services is not optional – it is mandated in law.

One of the fundamental issues we need to address is how we relate to the residents which the local authority represents, treating them as customers and clients, rather than residents, communities, neighbours and friends. I believe that we need to change the language we use to something that changes our perception of our residents, and that is to refer to them as citizens or residents, and ensure that change of language is permeated throughout the organisation and reflected throughout the community.

The power of community is immense: we see many community groups, residents associations and groups of interest coming together. Everyone chips in some money to deal with the day-to-day running and when other things need to happen, people get involved, and split costs, fundraise or generate funds by other means, but overall they are very much involved with the solution, and someone brings the milk, someone else the coffee! In essence, this is the same fundamental model for local authorities, but councils have become so wrapped up in themselves that we forget that we are here for the communities and have lost that team attitude. A progressive Labour party would embrace this energy and enthusiasm and work with it. No other party has the background, or fundamental principles to deliver that.

This approach is about engaging with residents as citizens and not customers. It is harder to categorise and measure but it will engage and empower residents to appreciate that they should be at the centre of the service provision, not just the receiver of it. Simply providing a service to a customer should not be the knee-jerk assumption for meeting their needs, even though it may be the easiest in the short term. It also follows that even where there is a service then the recipient of a local authority-based service need not necessarily be treated as a customer but empowered as a resident to be a partner in the delivery.

The implication of having citizens rather than customers is of a two-way relationship. Citizens should be empowered within our communities and recognise that we all have a responsibility in our neighbourhoods. Some will be leaders, some will be the practical hands on help, some will make the essential tea and coffee, but importantly all have a role to play, and the local authority should be an engaged part of this, not simply a service provider of diminishing worth. This should also lead to a radical review of how local authorities support the communities that they represent, but this review would work with citizens being engaged, with active involvement and strong participation. A change in perspective could lead to a broad political reengagement.

So I set a challenge to all Labour councillors to positively reassert the relationship we have with our residents, bring the local authorities into partnership with our communities and empower our residents as citizens, not simply customers.

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Barry Kirby is a councillor on Gloucesterhire county council and a candidate for the Progress strategy board