LGR and what we make possible
Last week, I had the privilege of hosting a New Local member session on LGR and digital. As our final member event of the year, it offered not just insight, but a moment to step back and reflect on what we have learned so far from the LGR journey, where we are heading and the future we want to shape together.
We were very lucky to be joined by Jonathan Stevenson, Joint Chief Executive of Rochford District Council and Brentwood Borough Council, and Lisa Trickey, Lead Advisor for Digital Change at the LGA. Both brought deep experience of navigating reorganisation (Jonathan through his live experience in Essex and Lisa by way of her previous role in Dorset). What echoed loudest from what they told us wasn’t the technology; it was the culture needed to use it to best effect.
Not a side quest
One theme came through powerfully: digital will shape how new councils feel and function from the first day they exist. Most residents’ first experience of a new council will be digital: a website, a payment, a request for help. If it works well, it builds trust. If it doesn’t, trust drains at the very moment the organisation needs it most. So, this isn’t about digital nerdery or shiny tools but about what lies underneath. The digital is the shop window, but it won’t function as it needs to if the machinery behind it is not genuinely focused on improving outcomes for people and places.
The temptation during LGR is to narrow the focus to “safe and legal”, but Lisa and Jonathan were clear: focusing on day one compliance risks locking in years of problems to unpick. The real question is how to be safe and legal and set up new authorities with the foundations they need to work differently.
A year of exploring LGR as a catalyst
And what are those foundations? Over the last year at New Local, we’ve been exploring how LGR can act as a catalyst for a more relational public sector.
As our outgoing Chief Executive, Jessica Studdert, and our new Interim, Anna Randle, articulated over the summer, we’re deeply interested in how new structures can hardwire the behaviours, partnerships and preventative approaches that local government has long aspired to but hasn’t always been able to embed.
Digital sits right at the heart of that ambition. Not as a technical solution, but as an enabler of more relational practice. By opening up pathways and enabling us to delve deeper into what the data is telling us, digital can support local authorities to join up services around real lives, improving insight, reducing friction, supporting collaboration and strengthening a collective sense of place. Dorset Council’s work in this area shows how digital and data infrastructure put in place through reorganisation can support more joined-up, preventative and people-centred practice by embedding shared insight across services from the outset.
As we move into the new year, New Local will be deepening our support for members and the wider sector as they prepare for (and move through) LGR. We’ll be bringing together sector experience, evidence and practical tools to help councils navigate not just the mechanics of reorganisation, but the wider shift towards the more relational, prevention-focused, collaborative public sector it enables.
For me, the question is always: when we look back in 10 years, what will we say about this moment? Will we be able to say that we used LGR to build councils that are more open, responsive and capable of achieving better outcomes for people? Maybe in 2026, we’ll start to see how the answer is shaping up.
Image Credit: Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash
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