How people think and feel
People want to be consulted but don’t trust it will happen meaningfully
There is a strong desire among Brits to have their say on actions and responses to tackle climate change and protect our environment. People want to be consulted, especially locally. However, there is a deep distrust that this will happen meaningfully, especially by national government.
Many people don’t feel they are a part of decisions being made, and feel any consultation that is happening is a ‘tick box exercise’. 49% of Brits would say ‘more often than not national government has already made up their minds, and the consultation is just a tick-box exercise’. 49% would say the same if this was being run by a local council.
“...Transparency is the key, to just be honest with people. And that honest part is something that I think all of us here can agree on is we're never going to get, which is why there's that scepticism…”
Sceptical Scroller, Glasgow Central Constituencies
“It feels like decisions are made behind closed doors. That's how it feels for me. You've really got to dig if you want to find stuff out and then you are not really invited to those meetings, planning meetings or things just get slid through…”
Established Liberal, Godalming
“...Just from when the elections were on and people were coming to the doorsteps and talking to the people who came to the doorstep for the different parties. I did get the feeling that no, they weren't particularly interested in people's views…”
Rooted Patriot, Anglesey
Very few believe that consultation wouldn’t happen at all (just 12% for national government consultation, and 11% for local council consultation), but people are more likely to think consultation that happens is insincere and unmeaningful.
This feeling of insincerity in consultation is felt more strongly by some – 71% of Traditional Conservatives would say this type of consultation by national government is a tick-box exercise, whereas only 48% of this segment would say the same for consultation run by local councils.
The extent to which people feel government run public consultations on a national infrastructure development would be meaningful and would happen, by segment
Overall among Britons, feelings towards both national government-led consultation, and local council-led consultation are fairly similar, but for those audience segments who are harder to engage, maintaining and building trust in meaningful local-level consultation is important.
“I think when it comes to local politics, I don't believe a word out of any politician's mouth at all. But that's personal opinion, personal preference. But another way of looking at it is actually most things like that is they want you to feel that you are heard without actually listening to you…”
Traditional Conservative, Suffolk
Lack of information and not feeling listened to stops people from engaging on climate and nature
Lack of trust in meaningful and sincere consultation is stopping people from engaging. There is also a tendency to feel uninformed and that people don’t know enough of what is being proposed to engage fully.
We presented people with a list and asked them to select their three top reasons (from 8 possible options) for not reaching out to the council with their views on a local energy project. The top three reasons were:
- ‘The council wouldn’t listen to my views anyway’ (42% selected this in their top three),
- ‘I don’t know enough about energy projects’ (41%), and
- ‘I’ve never spoken to the council before’ (28%).
“...And obviously then you have to involve the people, the residents in it. You've got to inform them before a decision can be made. Actually we are in it. If you want us to approve or disapprove, we've got to have a voice, otherwise we're not going to be on your side. We need to be informed. And then we do our own research too. And then therefore you come up with your own judgement.”
Progressive Activist, Bristol
“Yeah, but I think they also need to, when they're consulting you, give you the positives and the negatives to these schemes so you can fully understand. I mean there's no point asking me if I want to reduce carbon emissions. Obviously the answer is yes, but what effect does that have on us?”
Dissenting Disruptor, Dartford
“I think listen to the people more. Put more little mini adverts on the tele explaining what's going on… A lot of people just don't know what's going on and just accept that things are the norm. But if they knew what was going on, and if they had a voice.”
Rooted Patriot, Anglesey
People believe local communities should have more of a say, locally
People overwhelmingly feel positive about the idea of being consulted on climate actions happening in their local area. 88% feel positive or neutral about being asked to take part in a community consultation about plans for a wind farm in their area, just 12% would feel negatively about this.
Word cloud of open-text responses to the question ‘In a word or two, how would you feel about being asked to take part in a community consultation about plans for a wind farm in your area?’ (Source: More in Common and Climate Outreach, June 2025)
People feel local communities and local residents should be listened to more. When asked whether politicians listen to different people and stakeholders too much or not enough when developing plans for new energy projects – it was the local people who Brits felt should be listened to more.
Perceptions of whether politicians don’t listen to certain stakeholders enough when developing plans for new energy projects (Source: More in Common and Climate Outreach, June 2025)
People are strongly in favour of more consultation, and feel having their voices heard is more important than getting the job done quickly.
think it would be better for politicians to listen to the views of as many residents as possible, even if that slows down the development process of the infrastructure needed to tackle climate change. A majority across all audience segments feel the same, especially those harder to engage.
The extent to which people feel politicians should listen to residents vs move quickly and trust their instincts when building the infrastructure needed to tackle climate change, by segment
There is huge scope for innovation in how we consult with people
Being consulted and having a say is important to people across Britain, and how this is done does matter. People want equitable and representative ways to have their voices heard.
“...But there's other areas where consultations have improved… There's been protests and things where people had to listen in terms of making consultations more accessible in different ways… they made sure that there were 10 different consultations around the city for loads of different people to be able to access and then also give online surveys for people to be able to access and just tried many different ways to get those consultations and get that data in…”
Progressive Activist, Bristol
...I just feel that the general public should be consulted more and that may be in the form of questionnaires sent to every house and you complete this questionnaire… and let the public have more say in what they want to”
Rooted Patriot, Anglesey
In 2024, we heard that engagement on climate change that is close-to-home, in the local community and face-to-face was preferred. In 2025, we heard differently – this time online engagement seems to be more preferable. People want quick and easy ways to engage that fits into their day-to-day lives.
- 44% of people probably or definitely would share their opinion if the council were to reach out to ask for their views on a local energy project they are proposing, if they could do so in-person, in their local community.
- 56% of people probably or definitely would share their opinion if the council were to reach out to ask for their views on a local energy project they are proposing, if they could do so online.
“I think maybe like an app. We are in that era now where, I mean one of the reasons I'm on this call is because I don't vote and that's simply because I don't have time to go off to the polling station or to post a polling… I think an app, I don't want to have to go somewhere to listen.”
Dissenting Disruptor, Merthyr Tydfil
“I think given that pretty much everybody has a mobile phone that has access to internet, it'd be super easy to get some kind of accessible QR code. I mean, on my morning dog walk, I pass free notice boards of different villages I walk through. It'd be super easy to just shove a poster and a QR code up on one of them.”
Established Liberal, North Cotswolds
It is critical to keep people informed after consultation
Ongoing communication is key to building people’s faith that their input is being listened to.
How people feel they should be responded to after writing an email to a local development consultation (Source: More in Common and Climate Outreach, June 2025)
Strategic implications
Focus on meaningful local engagement and consultation
Building trust in meaningful local engagement is crucial, especially for those audience segments who are harder to engage. Make sure there are opportunities for local people to engage on local issues that will affect them, and make sure this can’t be seen as a ‘tick-box exercise’.
Keep people in the loop and find ways to show how their thoughts and concerns have been taken into account and have informed decisions in some way, even if the outcome is different to what they wanted. Use trusted local messengers to oversee the engagement and consultation, and make sure clear information is given on what is being consulted on – so people feel informed.
Make consultation and engagement feel normal and personal
Local councils and messengers need to make engagement and consultation feel normal to people. Avoid the ‘I don’t know enough’ narrative by making the engagement personal to people. Show why it’s important to hear their voices in particular regardless of how much they know on the topic. Find ways to respond to questions and concerns in a way that feels personal and pointed rather than general and sweeping.
Consult and engage through a mixture of different approaches
We need a range of ways for people to engage. Some people might prefer engaging online, or some might prefer it to happen face-to-face. Above all people want these opportunities to feel easy and quick to fit into their daily lives. Rather than engagement happening all online or all in-person, we need a mix of approaches to suit everyone.
BTC 2025 Insights Report
NEXT