1.
"Where do we even start?"
Insights
10 LGR challenges keeping you awake at night, and how to solve them.
Published 05/10/2026
Author: The CPS Team
Local Government Reorganisation
is a huge undertaking.
This blog delves into the ten challenges councils need to think about now, and practical ways to start tackling them.
Local Government Reorganisation is not one project.
It is a programme made up of potentially hundreds of projects, activities and decisions, all taking place while councils still have to deliver essential services every day. The recent pause and Government review has created uncertainty around the timetable and future arrangements for some councils.
But it has also created something valuable: time.
- Time to step back.
- Time to understand what needs to happen.
- Time to challenge assumptions.
And time to get the foundations in place before implementation needs to move forward again.
If you're involved in LGR planning, there are probably some questions that keep coming up...
- Have we thought of everything?
- How will we manage all of this?
- What happens to our data?
- Will our systems work together?
- How will our people work on Day One?
- How do we keep services running while everything around us is changing?
Here are ten of the biggest challenges, and some practical ways councils can start tackling them.
2.
"How are we going to manage all of these projects?"
3.
"What happens to all our data?"
4.
"How will we bring different organisations together?"
5.
"How do we keep people working?"
6.
"What about security?"
7.
"What happens to our business applications?"
8.
"How do we keep services running?"
9.
"What have we missed?"
10.
"How do we make the new organisation better,
not just different?"
"Where do we even start?"
LGR can quickly become overwhelming.
There are strategic decisions to make, hundreds of activities to coordinate and a huge amount of information to understand. The risk is that teams start working on individual pieces without having a clear view of the bigger picture.
The solution: establish a clear starting point
Before trying to solve everything, establish where you are today.
A structured readiness assessment can help you understand:
- What is already known
- What work has already been completed
- What decisions have been made
- What still needs to be decided
- Where the biggest gaps are
- What the major risks are
- Which activities need to happen first
- What needs to be ready for Day One
This creates a baseline for the programme. It also means that when the direction becomes clearer, you aren’t starting again from scratch.
CPS can help councils assess their current position, identify gaps and turn a complex challenge into a practical plan.
"How are we going to manage all of these projects?"
This is one of the biggest challenges of LGR.
There could be projects covering technology, data, applications, identity, security, people, services, property, finance, communications and more.
And they are not independent. One project will depend on another. A delay in one area could affect several others. Without strong programme management, it becomes difficult to see what is happening across the whole programme.
The solution: bring the programme together
A strong programme structure should give everyone clarity around:
- Projects and workstreams
- Owners
- Milestones
- Dependencies
- Risks and issues
- Decisions
- Resources
- Priorities
- Progress
The objective isn’t to create more bureaucracy. It is to create visibility and control. A lightweight way to manage LGR projects. Not every council needs to introduce a large, complex PPM platform; sometimes a simple, familiar tool is enough to get started.
CPS LGR Planner provides a lightweight project management environment built using Microsoft Planner and Power Platform. It can help councils bring LGR projects together, track activities and actions, understand progress, identify dependencies and give programme teams greater visibility.
The benefit is simplicity. Rather than introducing another complex system, councils can use familiar Microsoft technology to start organising the work quickly.
Get the projects organised. Then get the programme under control.
"What happens to all our data?"
LGR creates a significant data challenge.
Councils have information spread across different systems, applications, databases, file stores and Microsoft 365 environments.
- Some data will be duplicated.
- Some may be out of date.
- Some may be subject to retention requirements.
- Some information will need to move.
And some information may need to stay where it is. The longer data questions remain unanswered, the more difficult migration and integration can become.
The solution: understand your data before you move it
Councils should establish:
- What data they have
- Where it is held
- Who owns it
- What condition it is in
- What needs to be retained
- What can be archived or removed
- What needs to move
- How it will be governed
- How it will be protected
This is not simply a migration exercise. It is an opportunity to establish better information management for the future organisation.
CPS can help councils develop practical approaches to data, information management, governance and migration.
"How will we bring different organisations together?"
One of the most visible technology challenges is bringing different organisations together.
Different councils may have different:
- Microsoft 365 environments
- Tenants
- Identity systems
- User structures
- Devices
- Applications
- Policies
- Security controls
- Ways of working
Simply putting everyone into one organisation doesn’t automatically make those environments work together.
The solution: plan the technology landscape early
Councils need to understand what the future environment should look like and how they will get there. That could include decisions around:
1. Tenant strategy
- Will organisations remain separate for a period? Will they consolidate? What needs to happen and when?
2. Identity
- How will users authenticate and access the systems they need?
3. Devices
- How will laptops, mobiles and other devices be managed?
4. Microsoft 365
- How will Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and other services be structured?
5. Applications
- Which applications will remain, change, integrate or be replaced?
The earlier these questions are understood, the easier it becomes to create a realistic roadmap.
CPS can help councils develop their Microsoft and technology strategy and plan the transition towards the future organisation.
"How do we keep people working?"
Technology is only useful if people can actually use it.
On Day One, employees need to be able to access the systems, information and tools required to do their jobs. That sounds simple. It isn’t. A new organisation could mean changes to:
- User accounts
- Identity
- Devices
- Teams
- SharePoint
- Access permissions
- Applications
- Processes
- Policies
- Ways of working
And these changes need to happen without unnecessarily disrupting services.
The solution: plan the employee experience
Councils should think about what employees actually need to do their jobs.
- What do they need access to?
- What will change?
- What needs to be ready before Day One?
- What training will they need?
- What support will they receive?
- And how will the organisation help people adapt to new ways of working?
CPS can support councils with Microsoft 365, Modern Work, collaboration, adoption and change, helping create a working environment that is ready for the new organisation.
"What about security?"
Bringing organisations together creates new security challenges. Different councils may have different approaches to:
- Identity
- Access
- Information protection
- Device management
- Security policies
- Data governance
- Compliance
At the same time, LGR can increase the movement of people, information and systems between organisations. That makes security something that needs to be designed into the programme – not added at the end.
The solution: build security into the plan
Key areas to consider include:
- Identity and access
Who should have access to what?
- Information protection
How should sensitive information be identified and protected?
- Governance
Who is responsible for information and security decisions?
- Devices
How are devices managed and secured?
- Data
Where does sensitive information sit and who can access it?
- Compliance
How will the new organisation meet its regulatory and information management responsibilities?
Microsoft’s security and compliance capabilities can provide much of the underlying technology, but councils need a clear strategy for how those capabilities should be applied.
CPS can help councils develop that strategy and put the appropriate Microsoft security and information governance capabilities in place.
"What happens to our business applications?"
Microsoft 365 is only one part of a council’s technology estate. LGR can affect core business applications supporting areas such as:
- Finance
- HR
- Customer services
- CRM
- Revenues and benefits
- Case management
- Service delivery
- Reporting
- Planning
- Project management
The challenge is understanding what happens when different organisations have different systems performing the same function.
- Do you keep them?
- Replace them?
- Integrate them?
- Consolidate them?
Or run them alongside each other temporarily?
The solution: create an application roadmap
A structured application assessment can help councils understand:
- What applications exist
- Who uses them
- What they support
- Where data is held
- What integrations exist
- Which systems are critical
- What could be consolidated
- What needs to change
- What needs to be ready for Day One
The goal isn’t simply to reduce the number of applications. It is to create an application landscape that supports the future organisation.
CPS can help councils assess their business applications, understand dependencies and develop a practical roadmap for change.
"How do we keep services running?"
This may be the biggest concern of all.
Councils cannot simply stop delivering services while they reorganise. Residents still need:
- Social care
- Housing services
- Waste and environmental services
- Planning
- Revenues and benefits
- Customer services
- Highways
- Community services
The transition has to happen while the organisation continues to operate.
The solution: plan for continuity
Councils need to identify: What absolutely has to work on Day One?
Not everything has to be transformed immediately. Some systems, processes or arrangements may continue temporarily while longer-term changes are delivered. Understanding that distinction is important.
A good Day One plan should identify:
- Critical services
- Critical systems
- Key dependencies
- Minimum requirements
- Risks
- Contingencies
- Owners
- Transition activities
Day One isn’t about having everything perfect. It’s about having the things that matter working.
CPS can help councils identify the technology and programme dependencies that underpin service continuity and Day One readiness. Is Your Council Day One Ready?
"What have we missed?"
This is perhaps the question that keeps programme leads awake at night.
LGR is too complex for any single team to have visibility of everything. There will be dependencies between workstreams. Decisions that affect multiple projects. Risks that haven’t yet surfaced. And assumptions that haven’t been tested.
The solution: regularly challenge the plan
Use the breathing space to ask difficult questions.
- What are we assuming?
- What evidence do we have?
- What haven’t we considered?
- What depends on something else?
- Where are we most exposed?
- What would happen if this project slipped?
- What absolutely cannot slip?
A programme readiness review can help provide an independent view of where the gaps and risks may be. It can also help senior leaders understand whether the programme is genuinely on track.
CPS can help councils review their plans, identify gaps and turn uncertainty into a prioritised action plan.
"How do we make the new organisation better, not just different?"
It is easy for LGR to become focused on one objective: Get to Day One.
But Day One should be the beginning, not the end.
Once organisations have been brought together, there is an opportunity to rethink how services are delivered.
- Where can processes be simplified?
- Where can repetitive work be automated?
- Where can employees be given better tools?
- Where can residents receive a better service?
- Where can data be used more effectively?
- And where could AI help?
The solution: think beyond Day One
The creation of a new organisation provides an opportunity to look at how work gets done.
- Microsoft Power Platform can support process improvement and automation.
- Microsoft 365 can provide better collaboration and information sharing.
- Business Applications can help connect customer and operational processes.
- And AI and Copilot Agents can help automate tasks, surface information and support employees.
The important thing is not to introduce technology for technology’s sake. Start with the service or business problem, then ask what technology could make it better.
That is where the longer-term opportunity of LGR can become much more interesting.
So, where should you start?
There isn’t one answer.
Every council will be at a different stage, with different challenges, different technology estates and different priorities but the current breathing space provides an opportunity to step back and ask three simple questions:
1.
Where are we now?
Understand your current position, your plans, your technology, your data and your biggest risks.
2.
Where do we need to get to?
Define what the future organisation needs to look like — particularly what must be ready for Day One.
3.
What needs to happen between the two?
Build the roadmap. Understand the dependencies. Organise the projects. Assign ownership. Manage the risks. And keep the programme moving.
How CPS can help
LGR requires more than a technology supplier. It requires organisations that can help councils understand the challenge, plan the work and deliver the change. CPS brings together a range of capabilities to support that journey.
- Project & Programme Management
Helping councils structure, govern and coordinate complex transformation programmes.
- LGR Planner
A lightweight Microsoft Planner and Power Platform solution designed to help councils organise LGR projects, track actions, understand progress and improve programme visibility.
- Modern Work & Security
Microsoft 365, identity, collaboration, information protection and security.
- Data & Information
Data strategy, governance, information management and migration.
- Business Applications
Understanding applications, processes, integration and the future business systems landscape.
- AI & Automation
Helping councils look beyond Day One at opportunities to improve services, automate work and create more efficient ways of working.
The goal isn't just to survive Day One
LGR is a significant challenge.
But it is also an opportunity to create organisations that are better connected, better governed and better equipped to deliver services for their communities. The current pause gives councils some valuable breathing space.
Use it.
- Get the plan in order.
- Understand the gaps.
- Organise the projects.
- Work through the dependencies.
- Prepare the technology.
- Protect the data.
- Support your people.
- And make sure the critical services are ready.
Because when the direction becomes clear, the councils that have used the time well will be in a much better position to move forward…
From uncertainty to readiness.
CPS can help you understand what needs to happen, organise the work and prepare for what comes next.
Talk to CPS about how LGR Planner can help your council get organised, improve visibility and prepare with confidence for what comes next.
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