What is Local Government Reorganisation?
The Government has launched a programme of local government reorganisation aimed at simplifying and improving local council services. This was announced in December 2024 in the English Devolution White Paper. As part of this, the Government is planning to replace all two-tier systems – where services are split between county and district or borough councils – with new unitary councils. It means the county and district councils will no longer exist and brand-new organisations will be created.
LGR is now well advanced and we currently know that around 56 new unitary councils will replace 188 existing councils across England. Further changes are outstanding as decisions are still outstanding for two areas – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex – where government ministers deferred choices to allow more time for review.
In this post we will consider these LGR changes and consider how they may impact the choice of content management system in the newly formed unitary councils.
Which councils are currently impacted by local government reorganisation?
The areas affected by Local Government Reorganisation include:
- Derbyshire and Derby
- Devon, Plymouth and Torbay
- East Sussex and Brighton and Hove
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Hertfordshire
- Kent and Medway
- Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool
- Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and Northeast Lincolnshire
- Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
- Norfolk
- Nottinghamshire and Nottingham
- Oxfordshire
- Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Warwickshire
- West Sussex
- Worcestershire
As mentioned above around 56 new unitary councils will replace 188 existing councils across England. This is a huge change which can be put in context by considering how many councils in England this represents:
We can also put LGR in context by considering how many councils in the UK this represents:
What effect will LGR have on CMS providers?
Local Government Reorgansation will have a significant effect on the CMS landscape in the UK and Ireland. Here are some of the possible effects:
The CMS market will contract
At present there are a large number of CMS providers who only have a minor foothold in the local government market. No less than 34 CMS are used by councils across the UK and Ireland, with 22 of these CMS being used by only 1-3 councils. LGR provides an opportunity to greatly reduce the number of CMS used in local government.
As a result of LGR 7 CMS will no longer be used by councils:
- Alterian Content Manager
- Blaze
- CommonSpot
- Cuttlefish
- Sitefinity
- Smart Media Intelligent WebCentre
- VerseOne
As a result of LGR 12 CMS will only be used by a single council:
- Blazor
- Contentful CMS
- DNN
- Easysite
- Joomla
- Nqcontent
- OpenText
- Orchard
- Rythmyx
- T4
- Webflow
- Web-labs
LGR will help to reduce the myriad of CMS currently in use by councils. I personally think this is a positive step forward. A number of the lesser used CMS were implemented by councils many years ago at the beginning of their website journey. CMS products have improved a lot since then and the new LGR councils need to find modern and far smarter products which can meet the challenges that lay ahead.
Popular CMS are likely to prosper as a result of LGR
There are currently 6 popular CMS which have a firm foothold in the local government market:
- Drupal (currently used by 115 councils)
- Jadu (currently used by 65 councils)
- Umbraco (currently used by (58 councils)
- GOSS iCM (currently used by 33 councils)
- Contensis (currently used by 27 councils)
- WordPress (currently used by 26 councils)
These CMS will initially take a hit as a result of LGR, but I think they may soon recoup these losses when new unitary councils are formed. The table below shows the immediate effect of LGR on these popular CMS:
| CMS | Current number of councils using the CMS | Effect of CMS usage as a result of LGR |
| Drupal | 115 | -43 councils (-37.4%) |
| Jadu | 65 | -35 councils (-53.8%) |
| Umbraco | 58 | -33 councils (-56.9%) |
| GOSS iCM | 33 | -17 councils (-51.5%) |
| Contensis | 27 | -8 councils (-29.6%) |
| WordPress | 26 | -13 councils (-50%) |
Drupal will initially take the biggest hit, but it is worth knowing that there are actually different variants or distributions of Drupal included here (see table below). Of these LocalGov Drupal is currently taking the main hit, but perhaps not for long as it is currently one the most popular CMS in local government.
| Drupal variant/distribution | Number of councils affected by LGR |
| LocalGov Drupal | 26 |
| Drupal (standard) | 12 |
| Council Platform | 4 |
| Thunder | 1 |
| Total | 43 |
Will a CMS emerge to rule them all?
I anticipate that the 56 or so new unitaries are likely to include one or more of the 6 popular CMS (Drupal, Jadu, Umbraco, GOSS iCM, Contensis and WordPress), when procuring a new content management system.
It will be interesting to see if one of the currently popular CMS becomes the CMS of choice moving forwards. In the new councils areas there will be between 2 to 5 separate unitaries to identify a CMS to use. In these areas it would make sense to choose and implement a single CMS for use across the new unitaries.
Using a single CMS will help to simplify development, share knowledge and expertise across the area and ultimately reduce overall costs by using a common platform. I look forward to finding out what the new councils decide to do and which CMS prosper in this new and exciting environment.
LocalGov CMS Directory
To find out more about the councils impacted by LGR take a look at the LocalGov CMS Directory using the button below. In the LocalGov CMS Directory you can find data on the councils invloved in LGR and check out charts in the Extensions section detailing the number of councils impacted by LGR and the CMS used by these councils.