A new resource, launched at the Public Sector Communications Academy last week, is designed to help local gov communications people better engage with local business.

By Darren Caveney

56% of the sole contact your local businesses have is with just one part of your council.

56%. Who is it? Well it’s not Communications Teams, it’s not Customer Services and it’s not elected members.

It’s your regulatory colleagues.

There is so much more to this area of work that just sending out a press release when a rogue local trader is caught and fined by Trading Standards.

For example, do you know what the excellent Primary Authority initiative is? No, I wasn’t fully aware either.

In fact when I reflect back on my 11 years leading local government comms teams I realise that I did very little with business customers, almost all of my focus was on residents. And that’s missing a trick.

From talking to other comms colleagues I was not alone.