New Research Shows One In Three Councils Could Leave Vital LGR Finance Infrastructure Planning Until It's Too Late
- Kelsie Papenhausen
- 28 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Council leaders are unprepared for ‘the biggest shake-up of local government for decades’, with key finance infrastructure at risk of being treated as an afterthought.
New research from Access PaySuite, part of The Access Group, has revealed that a lack of preparedness could impact income management and revenue collection as Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) forms new unitary authorities across England.
LGR is the biggest restructuring of councils for decades, merging two-tier county and district councils into a single unitary authority which manages all local services, due to go live in April 2028.
The research surveyed 100 finance leaders working in local authorities, as well as conducting focus groups with unitary authority leaders and industry expert insights, to understand the tensions at the heart of the reorganisation process.
Access PaySuite, which works with half of the existing unitary authorities and more than 200 local authorities across the UK, also found that 89% of local authority finance leaders admit that legacy IT systems dictate their transformation strategy, rather than strategy driving their technology choices.
40% of respondents cited the inflexibility of incumbent software providers and vendor lock-in as a primary barrier to integrating disparate legacy systems.
Three in ten finance leaders also reported only mapping payment and income systems mid-programme, retroactively, or not at all.
The findings pose a worrying challenge for local authorities as they try to balance financial stability with citizen experience ahead of the April 2028 deadline. 96% of the finance leaders surveyed reported they were struggling to balance these competing priorities.
Councils are already facing financial strain from record council tax arrears, which have reached £7.4 billion in England, as well as £655 million of social housing rental arrears.
With key revenue sources like council tax and rent collection under pressure, fragmented income systems risk pushing these figures even higher following the LGR process.
Jamie Symons, head of product and engineering at Access PaySuite, 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, techUK, has been working closely with the Local Government Association and tech suppliers to support them through LGR. She 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 is a Socitm associate with more than three decades of experience supporting local authorities on digital transformation projects. He said:
“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.”
To see the research in full, visit: https://www.accesspaysuite.com/sectors/local-authorities/the-unitary-authority-payment-challenge/
About the research
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 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 full research is available here: https://www.accesspaysuite.com/sectors/local-authorities/the-unitary-authority-payment-challenge/
About Access PaySuite
Access PaySuite is a leading UK-based, FCA regulated provider of payment solutions and embedded finance, supporting businesses and organisations across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Part of The Access Group, Access PaySuite delivers payment and financial product solutions that support the growth of businesses and organisations, helping them better serve their people, customers and communities. Access PaySuite supports more than 6,000 customers, processes over 250 million transactions and transacts more than £23 billion in payment volume every year.