Lets look at the priority people feel the Government should place on the environment compared with other issues. All respondents were asked to say what they thought were the most important issues the Government should be dealing with. This question was asked unprompted – respondents‟ spontaneous answers were coded to a list of options which were not seen by the respondent. Respondents were able to give as many answers as they liked. Table 5 below summarises responses to the question compared with responses from the 2007 Defra survey.

Perceptions of governement issues

The economy was the most frequently mentioned issue for this question with more than half (57%) of all respondents selecting this as an important issue for the Government. The proportion of respondents mentioning this as an important issue had increased very considerably from 8% in 2007. This was followed by unemployment, mentioned by 37% of respondents (up from 9% in 2007) and then the “Environment / Pollution‟, mentioned by 35% of all respondents (up from 20% in 2007).

Overall this makes the “Environment / Pollution‟ the third most frequently cited response to the question (it was the fourth in 2007), with more respondents mentioning this as an important issue for the Government than crime. It is also worth noting that the proportion of people who mentioned at least one issue related to the environment (including public transport) as being important had increased from 26% in 2007 to 41% in 2009.
It should be noted that while relatively few respondents mentioned global warming / climate change, or energy use / fuel efficiency / alternative fuels, it is probable that many respondents were thinking about these issues when they said the environment / pollution. As this question was unprompted, it is not possible to say what specific aspect of the environment respondents were thinking about.

None of the three responses given most frequently in 2007 were in the top three responses in 2009 – in 2007 they were crime (mentioned by 49% of respondents and now down to 32% in 2009), health / social services (46% down to 26% in 2009), and education (35% down to 24% in 2009).

Here at BuilderScrap.com we meet people who work for Builders Merchants and in Construction all the time…. It’s time for our own quick poll.