New research from Access PaySuite, part of The Access Group, has found that many councils in England are not preparing early enough for changes to how they collect payments and manage income during Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).
LGR is the biggest overhaul of local councils in decades. Under the plan, county councils and district councils, which currently share responsibility for local services, will be merged into single unitary authorities that run everything themselves. The change is due to be completed by April 2028.
Access PaySuite commissioned an independent survey of 100 finance leaders working within local authorities across the UK to understand how prepared councils are to plan, implement and measure the success of LGR digital transformation. The company also ran focus groups with leaders at unitary authorities that have already gone through the process, and gathered insight from industry experts. The findings form part of a wider series of research, expert insight, focus groups and unitary authority case studies published by Access PaySuite to help guide local authorities through the LGR programme.
The research found that three in ten finance leaders only mapped out their payment and income systems partway through the reorganisation programme, after the fact, or not at all. This matters because payment systems, such as how a council collects council tax or rent, are often complicated pieces of technology that are difficult to change once other decisions have already been made.
The survey also found that 89% of finance leaders said their existing, older IT systems were shaping their transformation plans, rather than the council deciding on a strategy first and then choosing technology to match it. 40% pointed to inflexible software suppliers and being locked into existing contracts as a major obstacle to connecting up separate legacy systems.
Nearly all finance leaders surveyed, 96%, said they were finding it difficult to balance financial stability with a good experience for residents during the transition.
This comes as councils are already dealing with financial pressure. Council tax arrears across England have reached £7.4 billion, and social housing rent arrears stand at £655 million. Council tax and rent are two of the main ways local authorities raise money to pay for services like bin collections, social care and road repairs, so any disruption to how that money is collected has a direct knock-on effect on council budgets. If income systems become fragmented or disorganised during the reorganisation process, these figures could rise further.
Access PaySuite, which works with half of the existing unitary authorities and more than 200 local authorities across the UK, says the risk is that payment and income systems are treated as a technical detail to sort out later, rather than as core infrastructure that needs to be planned from the start. When two or more councils merge into one, their finance teams typically need to bring together separate billing systems, direct debit records and payment platforms, often built by different suppliers over many years. Leaving this until later in the programme can mean residents experience missed payments, delayed refunds or confusing changes to how they are billed.
Jamie Symons, head of product and engineering at Access PaySuite, explains why payments and income management need to be elevated beyond their current status as back office administration to a priority function as councils navigate the LGR process. He said:
“This is a major piece of research which highlights common themes that are troubling finance leaders as they progress through the LGR transformation process.
“In the focus groups we conducted with local authorities who have already navigated the LGR process, the lack of planning around income management systems was a key obstacle. One authority said that payments were only introduced to the programme six months in, but by then decisions had already been made which made the process more complex. Another said they implemented a brand new finance system on day one, which was their single biggest avoidable mistake.
“The scale and complexity of LGR means that some trepidation and doubt is perhaps to be expected. As we move towards April 2028, leadership, delivery teams, and suppliers will need to unite around a shared vision to make it a reality.”
Georgina Maratheftis, Associate Director, Local Public Services at techUK, who works closely with the Local Government Association and technology suppliers on LGR, added:
“For those who have been through LGR in the past, there tends to be a gap between the digital ambition and vision and the digital maturity of the council. The hardest thing is often the adoption. Finding technology and procuring it is the easy bit, but how do heads of service and frontline workers utilise it properly?
“You don’t want to be creating the legacy of tomorrow.”
Andrew Rogers, a Socitm associate with more than three decades of experience supporting councils on digital transformation projects, added:
“This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to think about things differently. It’s radically rethinking reorganisations – rather than a cost service and keeping the lights on – to take advantage of what we can do differently with digital technologies.”
