On 22 April 2026, the LGA hosted a webinar focused on the role of procurement in supporting safe, legal and effective local government reorganisation.
On 22 April 2026, the Local Government Association (LGA) hosted a webinar focused on the role of procurement in supporting safe, legal and effective local government reorganisation (LGR). As councils prepare for or progress through reorganisation, procurement plays a critical role in ensuring service continuity, managing risk, and setting new authorities up for success beyond vesting day.
The session was chaired by Susan Attard, Head of Productivity at the LGA, and formed part of the LGA’s wider LGR support webinar series. The webinar featured presentations from Sharon Simpson, Assistant Director of Commissioning and Procurement at Westmorland and Furness Council, and Keith Coleman, Deputy Director of Procurement at Surrey County Council.
Watch the webinar
Reflections from LGR in Cumbria
Speaker: Sharon Simpson, Assistant Director – Commissioning and Procurement, Westmorland and Furness Council
Sharon shared reflections from Cumbria’s LGR in April 2023, which brought together seven sovereign councils into two new unitary authorities. Appointed shortly before vesting day, Sharon reflected that while the reorganisation now feels some time ago, many of the procurement challenges remain live.
Getting things in order
Sharon encouraged councils, wherever they are on the LGR journey, to focus early on a small number of fundamentals:
Contracts register
- Ensure it is up to date, complete and accessible. Sharon noted that during LGR, information often sits in individuals’ heads and can be lost quickly as staff move on.
Contracts pipeline
- Understanding planned activity over the next 12, 18 and 24 months — including beyond vesting day — is critical. Sharon described the pipeline as her number one recommendation, stressing the value of avoiding delays where possible to prevent excessive peaks in activity, and identifying early opportunities for aggregation or alignment.
Spend analysis and governance
- Working closely with finance teams helps councils understand where money is being spent and why. Sharon also advised early review of contract procedure rules to ensure they are robust and up to date.
Staffing and capacity
- Councils should assess procurement skills, capacity and knowledge gaps early, and act quickly to address risks through recruitment, training and knowledge sharing.
As vesting day approaches
As councils move closer to vesting day, Sharon highlighted the importance of:
- being clear about hosted contracts and inter‑authority agreements, including responsibilities, governance and timescales
- building a shared procurement culture ahead of vesting day, creating opportunities for teams to meet and reducing the sense that reorganisation is something being “done to” them
- engaging suppliers early, being clear about what LGR means for them and what they should expect through transition
- making effective use of shadow authority (Section 24) arrangements to take decisions wherever possible before vesting day.
Planning beyond day one
While organisations often plan intensively for day one, Sharon stressed that procurement teams must plan for days 2-365. After vesting day, requests for contract information increase, knowledge gaps emerge, and differences in procurement confidence and compliance across the new organisations become more visible. Sharon noted that unmanaged legacy ICT systems, informal arrangements and decisions not taken pre‑LGR can create complex “wicked issues”.
She emphasised the importance of building confidence among members and senior leaders, while also managing expectations — particularly around how quickly contracts can realistically be aggregated.
Managing procurement during live LGR in Surrey
Speaker: Keith Coleman, Deputy Director for Procurement, Surrey County Council
Keith shared insights from Surrey’s live reorganisation, which will see the county council and 11 districts and boroughs reorganised into two new unitary councils, East Surrey and West Surrey, with vesting day scheduled for April 2027.
Keith outlined the scale of the task, emphasising that procurement teams must manage LGR alongside business‑as‑usual activity, with thousands of contracts and suppliers involved and many contracts still due to expire before vesting day.
Contract transition options
Keith explained that contracts can transfer to successor councils through different routes, depending on their complexity:
- simple statutory transfers via Section 16 agreements
- hosted arrangements, governed by inter‑authority agreements
- novation or disaggregation of contracts where services or geographies are complex.
He stressed the importance of understanding both statutory and contractual rights, noting that suppliers are not always familiar with councils’ statutory transfer powers.
What “safe and legal” means
Keith described Surrey’s focus on delivering a safe and legal transition, which for procurement means:
- compliance with procurement and transparency legislation
- clear standing orders and governance
- a complete, accessible record of contracts and terms
- clear hosting and transfer arrangements through inter‑authority agreements.
To support this, Surrey is developing a central contracts hub to capture contract data, vesting decisions and approvals, helping maintain organisational memory during transition.
Avoiding a post‑vesting cliff edge
Keith highlighted the risk of a post‑vesting “procurement cliff edge” if too many contracts expire at the same time. Surrey’s approach includes extending contracts where appropriate, staggering end dates, and building flexibility into extensions, while avoiding long‑term decisions that could constrain new authorities.
Keith closed by challenging common myths around LGR, including the idea that procurement activity reduces during reorganisation or that it is an ideal time for service redesign. Instead, he emphasised that LGR is primarily about transition, not transformation, with vesting day marking the beginning of sustained work rather than the end.
Please note that questions not answered during the webinar will be added to the highlights at a future date.