Devolution Revolution | Taking part in the ‘Plan for Change’ to power local economies

Back in the late ‘90s when I was working in a fledgling unitary authority that emerged from the 1997 local government reorganisation, it became increasingly clear that along with increased autonomy and devolved funding also came new collaboration challenges in structuring, procuring and delivering.

Not only did I see that local control allowed more concentrated efforts on the shaping of an asset portfolio to deliver improved public services, but this came at a cost when the critical mass is too small.

With the understanding of population economics, I can embrace the ambitions of government to ‘relight the fire of our economy and ignite growth in every region’ through its devolution revolution and local government reorganisation.  But this needs suppliers to have clarity in their own thoughts, plans and approaches to providing solutions for efficiency and impact in local communities.

Fewer local authorities; greater value for money

Devolution and reorganisation will almost half  the current 317 Local Government authorities across England. It will establish a patchwork of up to 46 Strategic Authorities to increase authority away from the grip of Whitehall, and it will consolidate two-tier County and District councils into up to 138 Unitary Authorities to promote efficiency and financial stability.

In rebuilding and reforming local government as the foundation of devolution, there must be a lens on getting the basics right; providing better value for money in service delivery and contracts; raising standards and modernising democratic working practices. By empowering local leaders and mayors to make the right decisions for their communities, they can work together to grow an inclusive economy, reform public services and secure better outcomes, not least by working with the right suppliers.

With the interim plans for local government reorganisation submitted, and full proposals submission set for November 2025, it will be late in 2026 before the final picture of what the new local government landscape across England will look like. Current development of the full plans requires detailed analysis, widespread public engagement and meticulous programme management, all areas of work where professional services suppliers can provide expert support and resource augmentation to local authorities who are facing this monumental change programme.

Stronger teams creating better estates

The creation of combined teams will reshape strategies for transport networks and local infrastructure; housing and regeneration; environment and climate change. It needs strong leadership and a collaborative approach. 

While ambitions for innovation and service transformation are promised and planned for, the process of forming a unitary authority will see the transfer of real estate, structures and buildings that were perhaps left floundering in the mass of upper-tier local government.  A common result has been assets that are detached from local communities who felt they had no say in them or realised any purpose from them. They have been left unloved, unmanaged, not fit for purpose and not high enough up the list of priorities for any funding to review, reuse, regenerate or release.

With the merger of asset portfolios, the centralisation of property/engineering/highways teams, the creation of new landlord functions (all secondary but essential support functions in the reform of public services) it's likely the procurement spend on professional and specialist services will flux. This will be between the need for consulting and advisory, strategic planning and output focused technical project design and management teams. Engagement and partnership support needs to be sought from existing consultancy solution frameworks that can provide what is needed, satisfying the requirement for speed and procurement compliance, with proven value for money.

Smarter procurement through the right frameworks

The consolidation of local authorities will bring together procurement teams to have greater purchasing power, with economies of scale quite rightly allowing demands for better value in procurement. Single transactional savings are good but saving in the long term from trusted partnerships in term service contracting can help the cost pressures and lock down on certainty.

Gold Standard Verified frameworks from SCAPE can deliver on the highly-localised needs. They are agile to the requirements of the emerging strategic authorities and unitary authorities, with Term Service Contract flexibility, delivery, certainty and value for money. With funding consolidated across new scaled-up local authorities, the efficiency of larger, higher-value contracts procured through frameworks shaped with quality performance management will better suit the drivers for local outcomes, than central government frameworks. But they can equally cater for higher volume, lower-value contracts arising from the devolution of services fragmented off from central government.

Delivering for the increasing scale and scope of local authorities

There is something to be said for chasing high profile central government projects, but the value of local government shouldn't be underestimated. In the last two years local government has moved to being the largest single contributor to public sector procurement spend, at 36%, compared to 29% central government and 20% NHS (source: Tussell The English Devolution report May 2025).  At Perfect Circle we have been working with over 170 local authorities, (ranging from London Boroughs and Metro to District) to support them with advisory services, strategy development, estate management and project delivery.

With the devolution programme shifting more powers and responsibilities from Whitehall, the local government procurement spend will likely continue to rise, beyond the 35% increase over the last four years. According to the latest report from Tussell, unitary authorities are expected to account for 57% of this local government procurement spending. Not only will the funding increase as authorities combine and the scale of procurement rise, so too will the breadth of services as new responsibilities transfer and the scope of commissioning and procurement stretch.

More opportunities for SMEs

It's all great news for SMEs. Local government recognise how the benefits localised knowledge and community benefit can generate layer on layer of efficiency, capacity, resilience and deliverability. Forty percent of local government spending is with SMEs, VCSEs or SME VCSEs, compared to only 20% spend with these suppliers by central government. 

Capitalising on devolution is a great opportunity for SMEs to get closer to fewer. Finding the route to unlock the opportunities can be daunting with procurement red tape of the new Procurement Act and the priorities in the National Procurement Policy Statement once again heightening attention on competition. Analysing procurement trends, accessing preferred frameworks and partnering as suppliers on incumbent contracts can offer the agility and value being sought by the public procurement teams to meet the rapidly shifting challenges.