PRWeek TV: Council comms 'must innovate' in the face of deep cuts

John Owens, prweek.com, Friday, 09 November 2012, 8:13am,

Innovation and sharing best practice will be key for council comms teams facing a tough future, a leading public sector figure has claimed.

Andy Allsopp: Innovation is key

In this week’s PRWeek TV, LGComms committee member Andy Allsopp acknowledged councils had faced a ‘very, very hard’ time amid swingeing budget cuts by central government.

Speaking shortly after PRWeek revealed that council comms teams had faced an overall 20 per cent cut in budgets over the past five years, he said: ‘We’ve seen resources shrink, we’ve seen activity levels fall away and we’ve seen people lose their jobs.’

However, the Hounslow Council head of comms said that the difficult economic times had led to ‘an atmosphere and opportunity to innovate’.

Allsopp pointed to initiatives such as Nottingham’s comms service company - named Portfolio - as an example of this, and council partnerships as being another way forward.

‘I don’t think there’s ever been a time when it's been more important to share that best practice,’ he added.

To read PRWeek's full analysis of council comms budgets, click here.