Implementation and transformation – our plan for delivering and maximising the benefits of LGR

Our implementation plan

Pre-planning  phase (March 2025 – September 2025)

The focus of the pre-planning phase will be on building authorities’ individual and collective readiness for formal transition once the government’s decision on the future structure for local government in Surrey is known.

Activities:

March-May 2025 (complete)

  • Reorganisation proposal – prepare and submit the final plan for reorganisation to MHCLG.
  • Public sector partner engagement – to inform the development of the proposal, including exploring opportunities for wider public service reform.
  • Resident and stakeholder engagement – to inform the development of the proposal and gather key necessary information to guide transition planning.

May-September 2025

  • Internal readiness – establish workstreams within each authority, including staff, unions, and member engagement and communications, resource prioritisation, and review of key activities such as project, procurement, and recruitment activity.
  • Consensus building, collaboration, joint working and data sharing – to inform the LGR proposal, undertake initial collaboration and mapping to inform transition planning and pursue early alignment opportunities, specifically in relation to lower-tier systems and contracts.
  • Programme management – preparatory work to enable swift mobilisation at commencement of planning phase, including collective agreement of likely workstreams, programme governance and resourcing arrangements.
  • Engagement and communications planning – development and delivery of a shared engagement and communications approach.
  • Ongoing liaison with government – for example on debt, stabilising the funding base, capacity funding support, planning to unlock devolution and any continuing authority arrangements.

Costs and resource considerations

  • Pre-planning work will mainly be resourced via diversion of existing resource from the authorities. Financial costs will be limited to:
    • Some backfilling costs for diverted staff posts
    • Limited costs associated with external advice on specialist issues and engagement.

Planning phase (September 2025 – May 2026)

The focus of the planning phase will be on preparing a robust transition and implementation plan, supported by appropriate resourcing, internal governance and formal decision-making arrangements.  In this phase, activities will begin to focus on the new unitary geographies, but will also require coordinating across the whole area to ensure a balance between local considerations and a robust approach to planning for critical service aggregation.

Activities:

  • Programme management mobilisation – mobilisation of programme and delivery teams to support the transition. Multiple workstreams which will be operational across the transition planning and shadow phases. They are expected to include:
    • Finance and debt
    • Communications & engagement
    • Legal, governance, & electoral
    • Human resources & Organisational Development (including Culture Change)
    • Data, IT and systems
    • Assets
    • Contracts, procurement & commercial
    • Service delivery and customer contact
    • Community governance & neighbourhood empowerment
    • Devolution and the move towards creation of a Mayoral Strategic Authority

Further detail of the anticipated focus of each workstream is included at annex 1.

  • Establishment of joint decision-making arrangements – including the establishment of implementation joint committee(s) or other formal decision-making structures that are required.
  • Baseline information – formal collation of key data across workstreams (such as assets, systems, contracts, HR, etc.).
  • Develop and agree a detailed Programme Implementation Plan – building on baseline information collation and analysis work. This also includes creating thematic action plans.
  • Continuation of work to align and consolidate systems, contracts, assets and change activity – across constituent authorities for each unitary, with a particular (although not exclusively) focus on opportunities in relation to lower-tier services.
  • Ongoing communications and engagement activity – with residents, businesses, staff, unions, councillors and other stakeholders.
  • Ongoing liaison with government – on legislative and practical aspects of implementation including and transitional legislation.

Early benefits and prioritised actions:

Although the implementation and transformation programme will span several years, development of a focused  set of actions will be prioritised during the Planning Phase on confirmation of the new unitary authorities. These early initiatives aim to align systems and integrate services where risks are greatest and the benefits of early action are most evident.

Key priorities include:

  • Establish early joint procurement frameworks – for key contracts where scale and consistency could yield savings and simplification (e.g., IT support, telephony, customer relationship management systems, etc.).
  • System alignment in lower-tier services – begin consolidation planning for systems related to Housing Revenue Accounts (HRA), homelessness and emergency accommodation, to avoid the reduce duplication of operating multiple platforms post-Vesting Day. See annex 2 (summary matrix of pre vesting and post testing transformation activity) for an overview of anticipated activity.
  • Data mapping and early migration scoping – launch cross-authority work to map critical data sets and assess dependencies in revenue and benefits, customer contact systems, and property management platforms.
  • Engage authorities who have been through reorganisation: join or establish a peer network with areas such as Dorset and Buckinghamshire to learn from lived experience avoid known pitfalls.

Key costs and resource considerations:

Work in the Planning phase will be undertaken through a combination of existing staff resources and bringing in additional capacity where necessary. Key cost areas for the planning period are projected to be:

  • External programme management support
  • Unitary elections
  • Limited external communications and engagement
  • Systems / contract alignment/ consolidation costs
  • Capital investment (invest to save)

Benefits realisation:

  • There are limited initial financial benefits realised from the early alignment and consolidation of systems and contracts which will unlock non-financial benefits of more efficient and effective ways of working.

Shadow phase (May 2026 – March 2027)

The focus of the shadow phase will be to ensure that the new unitary authorities are safe and legal on Vesting Day. Key areas of focus will include governance, financial management, and the disaggregation, aggregation, and harmonisation of services. Additionally, this phase will emphasise engagement and the development of robust local community empowerment structures within each unitary authority area.

While the Shadow Authority will set the tone for transformation, its powers will be limited. It is essential to maintain realism about what can be achieved before formal Vesting Day, with many decisions requiring enactment after the new unitary authorities are fully operational.

Our efforts during this phase will concentrate on high-impact, foundational changes—such as system alignment, governance protocols, and community empowerment design—while allowing the future political leadership to shape and own the longer-term vision. This approach ensures continuity without constraining local ambition.

Activities:

  • Shadow Executive arrangements – establish as soon as possible after election day.
  • Senior staff – appointment of senior statutory officers, followed by the appointment of other senior management.
  • Vision, organisational and operating model design – agree the overall vision for the new unitary authorities and define organisational and operating models.
  • Detailed service transition planning – including disaggregation and aggregation approach (delivery models, structures, processes, timelines and business continuity planning).
  • Staff transition planning – including the need to retain staff with the right skills and experience, arrangements for the TUPE of staff to the new authorities, and the establishment of new payroll arrangements.
  • Governance arrangements – establishment of key constitutional arrangements for decision making, as well as scrutiny, risk management, independent assurance.
  • Financial arrangements – consolidation of financial arrangements, including Council Tax equalisation, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) matters, treasury management, debt and reserves.
  • Budget setting – for the first year of each new unitary authority.
  • Data management and systems – consolidation of some lower-tier authority systems and back-office systems, for example telephony, CRM, revenues and benefits systems, waste collection management.
  • Asset rationalisation and invest to save activity – begin to implement non-core asset rationalisation and early invest to save activity relating to lower-tier service delivery.
  • Partnerships and community governance – building upon the best practice and case studies highlighted in Principle 4 above, we will seek the agreement of formal and informal mechanisms for ongoing partnerships and to ensure strong community engagement and neighbourhood empowerment.
  • Ongoing communications and engagement activity – with staff, unions, councillors, residents, businesses, stakeholders and public sector partners.
  • Branding – creating clear, locally supported brands and brand identities for the new unitary authorities.

Key costs and resource implications

Work during the Shadow phase will be undertaken through a combination of existing staff resources and bringing in additional capacity for periods where this is required. Key cost areas for the shadow period are projected to be:

  • External programme management support
  • Shadow authority and senior staff duplication costs
  • Systems / contract alignment/ consolidation costs
  • External support associated with the creation of the new councils.
  • Limited redundancy costs
  • Limited external communications and engagement costs

Benefits realisation:

  • Further financial benefits will be realised from initial systems and contract alignment/consolidation.

Vesting day onwards (April 2027 – April 2030)

From Vesting Day onwards, decision-making will be the responsibility of the new unitary authorities, with varying approaches and levels of ambition among them. We anticipate a focus on ongoing activities to ensure the safe and legal delivery of services, the completion of the Implementation Plan (including de-duplication), and the closure of legacy systems. Once assurance is secured regarding core service delivery, additional and ongoing transformation and innovation activities can be pursued, with initial benefits expected to be realised by the end of the first electoral cycle.

Activities:

  • Safe and legal delivery of services – Priority will be given to ensuring the safe and legal delivery of services on day one, with the understanding that full integration and subsequent transformation will need to be managed over the first 1-2 years following Vesting Day.
  • Create a single point of contact (’front door’) – for each new unitary authority.
  • Corporate priorities and objectives – agree new corporate strategies/plans, confirming authority-wide priorities and objectives for the first electoral cycle.
  • Organisational culture and ways of working – shape, adopt and embed a new organisational culture and identity. Align staff pay, terms and conditions.
  • Transition to target operating models – continue the managed transition to new operating models over a 1-2 year period, including full data and systems integration and migration from legacy systems.
  • Closedown of legacy councils – including financial account closedown, cessation of legacy systems and conclusion of the asset rationalisation programme.
  • Income and spend alignment and rationalisation – including a review and consolidation of contracts/procurement and fees and charges.
  • Establishment of a transformation programme – Each authority will have a different approach to transformation in line with its adopted policy objectives. However, during the initial electoral cycle, experience suggests conducting a detailed review to leverage opportunities for both financial and service improvements would be advisable.
  • Innovation and invest to save in service delivery – while each authority will have its own approach to transformation, we believe that integrating upper and lower-tier services and collaborating with public sector partners offers a significant opportunity for reform. This can (1) improve resident outcomes by introducing innovation in the planning and delivery of people and health services, and (2) deliver genuinely sustainable local growth through innovation in the planning and delivery of place and infrastructure services.
  • Service evaluation and feedback – a structured and ongoing evaluation process will be established post-Vesting Day to assess service performance, identify areas for improvement, and track transformation progress. This will include:
    • Baseline service performance measures set during the shadow period.
    • Quarterly service performance reviews and benchmarking across the three new authorities.
    • Resident satisfaction surveys to track resident experience and satisfaction over time.
    • Feedback loops embedded in each transformation workstream to allow iterative service design.
    • Annual public-facing reports summarising performance and outcomes.

Key costs and resource implications

Costs during this phase will vary by council, depending on the level of transformation ambition. However, common cost areas are expected to include:

  • Continued programme and change management capacity.
  • System migration and decommissioning of legacy platforms.
  • Investment in innovation pilots and service redesign.
  • Staff retraining and cultural integration activity.
  • Branding, communication, and resident engagement campaigns.

Some of these costs will be offset by invest-to-save initiatives launched in the planning and shadow phases. The new unitary councils will also have discretion to use local reserves or surpluses to accelerate transformation if financially prudent.

Benefits realisation:

Councils will begin to see tangible returns from earlier investment in transformation. These include:

  • Further financial benefits realised from lower-tier systems and contract alignment/consolidation.
  • Return on investment from earlier invest-to-save activity.
  • Initial transformation savings including reduction in systems and staffing costs.
  • Reduced demand through improved preventative services and digital access.
  • Improved resident satisfaction and service performance metrics.

Each council will maintain a transformation benefits tracker, reviewed quarterly, to ensure transparency and alignment with corporate plans.