LOCAL GOVERNMENT REORGANISATION A Cumberland tale
  | Stuart is the founder and Director of Knight Property Consulting Limited. He has worked as both a council property director and private sector consultant in the sector. He has over 30 years’ experience in and around local government, and when asked recently why, he said, “my focus is not simply on making rich men richer, but rather trying to make a difference to people and place. And occasionally I have.” Mark is Head of Property at Cumberland Council. He is a chartered surveyor with over 40 years’ experience in the property profession, with over 30 of those years in the public sector. Outside of work he is happiest in the water, either open water swimming or on a surf board; he can also be found following his favourite football team, Manchester United. |
The authors make good practical advice about LGR in Cumberland and state that “The primary purpose of this paper is, however, not to share achievements, which in many ways are specific to Cumberland, but rather to share learning.” |
So now we know, (or at least we thought we knew!) government announced in July of this year that 134 councils are to be streamlined into 38 unitary councils on 1 April 2028. (Since writing this article the government has paused LGR; however when it comes back - and they have said it will - the remainder of the article is still very relevant).
The cited goal is to reduce bureaucracy, cut duplication and boost economic growth. Whether or not these benefits will be realised is for a future article. This paper considers the implementation process and the experience from Cumberland Council, which came into being in April 2023. The first part is from the perspective of an interim Assistant Director of Property, brought in to support transition at that time.
Accordingly, this paper and its conclusions are his and his alone; they are not necessarily those of Cumberland Council, and include those that may be difficult for a permanent officer to make. The second part is an officer view, a reflection of LGR, and the situation three years on.
The paper summarises a presentation by Stuart and Mark that was made to the ACES North West CPD event in May 2026.
Options for change in Cumbria
The outcome for Cumbria was an east-west split with the creation of two unitary councils, Westmorland & Furness Council and Cumberland Council respectively. And this from a former county council and six district councils. However, that does not tell the whole story.
Before LGR was confirmed, Cumbria County Council had argued for just one authority covering the whole county. The six district councils all opposed that, but did not agree on a single alternative. Carlisle and Eden wanted to join Allerdale in a north-south split. Barrow and South Lakeland wanted to join Lancaster to create a Morecambe Bay Council. It was only Allerdale and Copeland who favoured a merger with Carlisle for an east-west split. This became significant, as the majority of officers and members came from councils that did not favour the final outcome. Four of Cumbria’s five Conservative MPs advocated for a two-way split; however when the new Unitary councils were established, Westmorland & Furness was controlled with a Liberal Democrat majority and Cumberland with a labour majority.
Leading up to vesting day
A key objective for the new unitary Cumberland Council was to transform local services. For example, assets were combined with fleet and corporate health & safety to challenge the ways of working of each of the former councils and the new authority. Each new service then produced an Implementation Programme for Year 1. The Assets & Fleet Programme (see image), identified six asset-related priorities. In the event, despite this small number and a lack of detail in quarter 3, these proved ambitious. Three years on, staffing structures are still to be finalised and corporate landlord remains an intent rather than an achievement.
Organisational structure for assets
To help determine the structure of the new assets section, the property lifecycle and resultant property activities (as illustrated), was used to confirm a new structure which would have four sections.
These four sections were not readily identifiable in any of the former councils. The smaller districts had little, if any, strategic asset management capability and due to their size, officers operated across multiple areas of activity. The county council was oriented towards education and adult services only, and Carlisle was the only council with a meaningful commercial property portfolio. This meant that concentrating on structure to lead the transformation, a Q1/Q2 priority, had limited success as the change for all the former councils was too large a step at that time.
Property activity rather than organisation structure
While the predecessor councils organised themselves very differently to how a larger single tier unitary council would be organised, there was a consensus around certain property activities. Accordingly, three workstreams were initially selected for closer consideration:
Facilities management
Repairs and maintenance, including statutory compliance
Estates management.
Officers from each predecessor council were then able to explain to their new colleagues how services were historically delivered in each of these workstreams. For example, within FM, how was building cleaning, washroom services, security, concierge delivered. This quickly identified opportunities to combine or procure new third party contracts, opportunities to create projects to improve joint working, and opportunities to collocate and rationalise the property portfolio. This played to the strengths of the predecessor councils, recognised the geography and supply chain across Cumberland, and importantly allowed for considerable joint working within the new assets team.
An example was a new repair and maintenance framework, with a north and south split, and with separate building and M&E lots. This framework allowed for historic contracts naturally to expire and be absorbed into a new arrangement that would in time operate across all of Cumberland and cater for all asset types.
The coroner’s service, a former county council area of responsibility, was in premises considered to be unsuitable and had long hoped for a new build court facility, and while a site had been identified, there was no capital available to deliver it. A proposal was identified to relocate the coroner’s service into surplus space within the former Allerdale Borough Council offices in Workington, which were to remain after LGR as a local base for the new unitary in the west of Cumberland.
The Port of Workington, another former county council asset, was identified as having greater economic potential for the Allerdale and Copeland areas in particular. A new asset management plan, new cement silos to support investment in Sellafield, and a visit from the Energy Secretary to support further clean energy investment in the Port, were early outcomes.
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As well as workstreams around these property activities, there were also workstreams around enabling activities, such as procurement and data; and around corporate issues from a property perspective, including, health & safety, finance, and governance.
The importance of these workstreams cannot be overemphasised, as they gave every officer within the assets team a voice; they all had knowledge and expertise to share.
The corporate centre
While we had the challenge of managing a large operational and commercial property portfolio, the corporate centre had bigger issues. How do you align budgets and systems, how do you align different pay scales and HR processes, how do you separate services at a county council level and at the same time, how do you improve health and wellbeing, the central aim of the new administration? Assets was part of the answer, but not the answer. Three former offices in Carlisle is an opportunity, but no more than that.
Learning points
The primary purpose of this paper is, however, not to share achievements, which in many ways are specific to Cumberland, but rather to share learning, which may help those 38 new unitary councils. Experience from the private sector is that between 70% and 90% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their stated financial goals or create expected shareholder value. While I am not aware of any similar public sector comparator, six learning points from our experience at Cumberland and from those few private sector successes are to be noted:
Create a vision
The first Cumberland Plan 2023-2027, had four priorities - addressing inequalities, local economies that work for local people, environmental resilience and the climate emergency, and delivering excellent public services. We used these to help determine which projects to do and how we would operate. The new coroners court, the repair and maintenance supply chain with local contractors, are examples of how we made Cumberland Council’s political priorities, our priorities.
Learning Point 1 – Create a vision. It does not matter what, net zero?, SME supply chain?, neighbourhood delivery?, grow your own to address recruitment?, etc. Something that the new property team can work together on for the benefit of the new organisation.
Have a plan
Despite the shortcomings of the Assets & Fleet Year 1 Plan, which with hindsight became apparent, having a plan helped; it set direction and priorities, it was understood within and outside of assets, and helped align the new team.
Learning Point 2 – A plan helps, but the organisation is new, therefore flexibility and change are essential. Make the plan a living thing; there is no need for a highly detailed well-crafted document. The new Unitary will be different than envisaged, and then different again. It will evolve and develop and so too must the plan.
All roads lead to Rome
Our focus on property activities enabled all officers to participate. An organisation of 50 people working on multiple ideas, small and large, that each moved us towards our vision was engaging and productive.
Learning Point 3 – Actions bring clarity; be brave - done is better than perfect. It is said that procrastination is the assassination of all destination and perhaps it does not matter what you do (remember your vision), just do it!
It’s all about people
Prior to Cumberland Council, there were six district councils and a county council. Multiple options for LGR meant there was no single consensus. Many officers and members did not want the two-unitary solution; some simply did not want LGR. However, for the new organisation to have any chance of success, this was the ‘elephant in the room’ that had to be addressed.
Learning Point 4 – LGR will be hard for some, maybe for many. Share progress, address friction points, and explain why the change still matters long after vesting day. Listen to feedback to understand why some employees are struggling and provide coaching rather than punishment.
Don’t wait for the centre
The new council required a new constitution, new financial regulations, new job evaluation and assimilation, new procurement procedures, new decision-making arrangements; the list goes on. We accepted that many things will change and may keep changing, but for now we worked with what we had and could influence, and in accordance with learning points 1 to 4, we did stuff.
Learning Point 5 – Data will not be perfect, budgets will not be certain, roles will not be clear, assets will not be the priority of the centre, but that is not an excuse to wait. It is like a jigsaw without all the pieces and certainly without a clear picture, but remember learning point 3!
Change matters
Learning points 1-5 are about manging change in a changing world. Creating a new unitary council is all about change management. Trust me, I would refer you to two models, Kotter’s 8-Step Model (https://www.kotterinc.com/methodology/8-steps) and Mckinsey 7S Framework https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-7-s-framework).
Why these? Change management is defined as a structured approach for preparing, supporting and helping individuals, teams and organisations make a successful transition to a new future state. A quick look at these models and you will see that is exactly what we did.
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Learning Point 6 – For those who want to create an organisation that can really make a difference to people’s lives, working in a new unitary council is a unique opportunity to do so. No longer, the phrase, "if it ain‘t broke, don't fix it". Accept it - it is broken and needs fixing.
Good luck and enjoy!!
How is it today?
The following section is written by Mark, who was also there before vesting day with Carlisle City Council.
They say hindsight is a wonderful thing! For those of you in one of the 134 councils going through the latest round of LGR, my advice would be run, get as far away from it as possible! Early retirement or a career change could be very attractive alternatives!
Joking aside, the last three years have been interesting (sic)! The biggest achievement is that the property team has survived and we are all largely still here and fighting. I feel honoured to work with a brilliant team of property professionals whose dedication and commitment never ceases to amaze me. However I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that the speed of change within the organisation has been painfully slow. On reflection this was probably inevitable, given the fact that across the organisation you are merging four teams right from the very top, both from a political and officer perspective.
If I was to offer advice to those of you that can’t run and wish to stay the course, I would recommend the following.
1). Get among it!
Get in the middle of it now! Make it a priority to join those pre-vesting day property groups, maybe make some time by delaying that disposals programme which may help you later on, as you will inevitably be under pressure to generate capital receipts early on.
2). Control the “super consultants!”
Try and control the “super consultants” that will be brought in to assist! These experts will offer to gather evidence and provide advice on the day one position, and make recommendations on the best way forward. I’m not sure we were told anything we didn’t already know, and little if any value was added by much of the work undertaken pre-vesting day in Cumberland. However, one area where they could help you would be around data, see below.
3). Data
Sort your data out now! Procure an asset management system ASAP and upload the data pre-vesting day if possible. This is one area where the super consultants may be useful, to highlight data deficiencies and ensure additional resources are available for data collection.
Honesty here is key, and there should be no judgement. Some organisations still have a low opinion of property, with teams majorly under resourced, which is no reflection on the individual property professionals; data may be lacking in certain areas, but in order that the new organisation can hit the ground running, good accurate data is key.
A good data manager or data lead would be a very shrewd appointment!
4). Promote property to the boss!
Once your new chief exec is appointed, get in their face, remind them that you are the person that keeps them out of jail, maybe mention legionella and leisure centres etc., to get their attention, and ensure you get the resources you need. Put the pressure on to make sure that you get to the top of the list when limited resources are being handed out and structures for service areas are being prioritised.
5). Delays are inevitable
Be prepared for delays; you think you have issues merging a number of property teams, but don’t forget everyone else will be in the same boat such as legal, finance, HR, etc.
6). Tsunami warning!
Be ready for the tsunami; you will have new political leadership with new ideas and a new management team keen to impress, and of course all will want results yesterday! This is where those quick win capital receipts that you held back may come in handy!
Finally, never lose your sense of humour and try and enjoy it. I have witnessed some amazing and hilarious things over the last three years. However, I’ll save those for another day!
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