The Government wants to take advantage of the trust that people have in local newspapers, and place a greater emphasis on regional communication.

Its press office - the Central Office of Information - believes it would be a good idea to increase its advertising and editorial on a local basis.

Speaking to the Newspaper Society, COI chief executive Alan Bishop said that a more localised approach would bring two benefits in communication terms.

It could harness the greater trust often placed in local media, and could engage the audiences who were most interested in how policy affected them directly, such as how policy on asylum seekers might affect people living in particular regions.

He was speaking out in support of the Phillis Report on Government Communications.

He said: "We certainly very much support Phillis' conclusions that people have a special relationship with their local media - indeed their original research, which validated this conclusion, was commissioned through the COI.

"If anything, the report actually understates the support and trust that people have for their local media. We are delighted with what we can achieve through local and regional press."

The COI was ready to act on the "hard evidence" in the report, he said, with, for example, the COI's own research showing that the regional press had a high profile among ethnic minorities.

The Phillis Report itself said: "Research told us the public want information that is more relevant to them and where they live. We recommend that more investment should be made in communicating at a local and regional level and more communication activity should be devolved into relevant regional government or public service units.

"The Government should involve local and regional newspapers and regional radio and TV to a much greater extent in testing, consulting on and communicating policies on issues such as regeneration and planning, where projects costing large amounts would benefit from public engagement at an early stage."

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