Why Transformation Often Fails Within Local Government
- truthaboutlocalgov
- Nov 7, 2025
- 12 min read
Transformation is often heralded as the solution to inefficiencies, rising demand, and budget pressures in local government. Councils across the UK have invested millions in transformation programmes digital, structural, and cultural with the hope of delivering better services at lower cost. Yet, despite the ambition, many programmes fail to deliver lasting change.
The Scale of the Challenge
According to a 2023 KPMG and Forrester study, only 17% of UK public sector decision-makers consider their digital transformation efforts to be completely successful. This aligns with broader research from McKinsey and BCG, which places the failure rate of public sector transformation projects between 74% and 80%. These figures are not just statistics they reflect real-world consequences: stalled projects, wasted investment, and missed opportunities to improve lives.
Why Do So Many Programmes Fail?
Lack of Clear Outcomes
Many transformation efforts begin with vague intentions “modernise services,” “go digital,” “reduce costs” but lack measurable outcomes. Without clarity, programmes drift, and teams lose alignment.
Siloed Structures and Fragmented Governance
Councils often operate in departmental silos, making cross-cutting transformation difficult. The “Future Councils” pilot by MHCLG found that systemic barriers like siloed working, lack of data, and political instability consistently obstruct transformation.
Leadership Turnover and Short-Termism
Political cycles and executive churn mean that transformation programmes often outlast their champions. Without sustained leadership, vision is lost and momentum stalls.
Underinvestment in People and Culture
Technology is often prioritised over people. Yet, 70% of transformation failures are linked to poor adoption and behavioural resistance, not technical issues. Councils must invest in staff engagement, training, and change management.
Budget Pressures and Unrealistic Expectations
Councils face a £2.3 billion funding gap in 2025/26, rising to £3.9 billion in 2026/27, according to the Local Government Association. These pressures often force transformation to become a cost-cutting exercise, undermining its strategic intent.
Failure to Engage Residents and Partners
Transformation must be resident-centric. Meena Kishinani emphasises that councils must understand not just where they are but where their residents are. Programmes that ignore community needs risk losing legitimacy and impact.
What Can Be Done Differently?
Claire Symonds argues that transformation must be a continuous mindset, not a time-limited project. Ashley Roper stresses the need for balanced, outcome-led technology adoption, and Meena Kishinani highlights the importance of strong governance, staff buy-in, and leadership continuity. Sector-wide initiatives like the Local Digital Declaration, the 7 Lenses of Transformation framework from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, and the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government are helping councils rethink their approach. But success requires councils to:
Start with a clear, shared vision
Build transformation around resident outcomes
Invest in internal capability and leadership
Align political and executive leadership
Communicate relentlessly and transparently
Embed transformation into organisational DNA not just project plans
1. Transformation Is a Mindset, Not a Project
Claire Symonds, former CEO of Redbridge, argues that transformation must be a continuous mindset, not a time-limited initiative. It’s a cultural shift one that requires councils to move beyond short-term fixes and embrace long-term strategic thinking. Transformation is not just about saving money; it’s about delivering better outcomes for residents, building organisational resilience, and adapting to a rapidly changing world.
“If we’re not all agreed on what we’re trying to achieve, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.” Claire Symonds
Why Mindset Matters More Than Milestones
Transformation efforts often fail because they are treated as isolated projects rather than embedded cultural change. The Local Government Association’s Transformation Capability Framework highlights that successful transformation requires visionary leadership, strategic planning, and a whole-council mindset that aligns transformation activities with broader organisational goals. The 7 Lenses of Transformation, developed by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, reinforce this view. They show that transformation involves not just new systems or structures, but a reimagining of how councils work, collaborate, and serve citizens. These lenses include vision, design, capability, leadership, delivery, alignment, and people each requiring sustained attention and cultural commitment.
The Cost of Not Thinking Strategically
Audit Scotland’s 2024 report warns that transformation in councils has been too slow and inconsistent, putting the sustainability of vital public services at risk. Councils must urgently shift from reactive change to proactive, strategic transformation. Without a shared vision and cultural alignment, efforts stall, and public trust erodes.
McKinsey’s research shows that only 20% of public sector transformations meet their objectives, but those that combine performance improvement with organisational health such as shared vision, leadership alignment, and cultural coherence are 79% more likely to succeed.
Leadership Is the Anchor
Claire’s experience at Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham underscores the importance of leadership continuity and clarity. Transformation must be championed not just by a Director of Transformation, but by the Chief Executive, Cabinet, and senior leadership team. Without their alignment and visible commitment, transformation becomes fragmented and vulnerable to political or organisational drift. The LGA’s guidance on transformational leadership calls for leaders to “paint a picture” of the future, inspire staff, and model the behaviours needed to sustain change. This includes strategic risk management, emotionally intelligent leadership, and the ability to communicate a compelling narrative that resonates across the organisation.
2. Technology Is an Enabler, Not the Answer
Ashley Roper of RPNA warns against tech-led change without clarity on outcomes. He notes that only 17% of public sector digital efforts are seen as fully successful. Councils must assess systems, citizen needs, and staff engagement before selecting tools. Technology works but people, culture, and process are the real variables.
“The one thing you can rely on most in a technology programme is the technology. It’s the people and the unknowns that derail it.” Ashley Roper
3. The Human Side of Change Is Often Overlooked
Transformation in local government is not just about systems, structures, or savings it’s about people. Meena Kishinani, with deep experience in Birmingham and Barking & Dagenham, reminds us that successful transformation hinges on strong governance, staff buy-in, and leadership continuity. Her work on the Different programme a national initiative to diversify senior leadership in local government demonstrates the power of inclusive, human-centred change.
“Transformation isn’t about moving the deck chairs. It’s a fundamental change to how the organisation operates.” Meena Kishinani
Why Staff Buy-In Matters
According to Harvard’s Professional & Executive Development research, 70% of transformation efforts fail, and the leading cause is not poor strategy it’s lack of staff engagement and emotional alignment. Employees resist change they don’t understand, don’t trust, or don’t feel part of. In councils, where staff are often residents themselves, this disconnect can be particularly damaging.
The Engage for Success framework identifies four enablers of transformation success: strategic narrative, engaging managers, employee voice, and organisational integrity. Councils that embed these principles into their transformation programmes see higher morale, better retention, and more sustainable change.
Governance and Culture Must Work Together
The Local Government Association’s Transformation Capability Framework stresses that governance is not just about control it’s about creating the conditions for success. Councils must align transformation governance with cultural change, ensuring that staff feel safe, heard, and empowered to contribute. Meena’s experience at Barking & Dagenham illustrates this. The borough’s transformation was not just technical it was cultural. Staff were involved early, internal communications were prioritised, and leaders were visible and aligned. The result was a transformation that didn’t just restructure services it reshaped the organisation’s identity.
Inclusive Leadership Drives Better Outcomes
The Different programme, co-led by Meena Kishinani and Deborah Cadman, is a response to the lack of diversity in local government leadership. Only 3% of council Chief Executives come from BAME backgrounds, and just 32% are women. Yet research shows that inclusive leadership improves organisational performance, resilience, and innovation, especially during times of change. By investing in diverse leadership pipelines, councils can better reflect the communities they serve and unlock new perspectives on transformation. The programme equips mid-career professionals from underrepresented backgrounds with the skills, confidence, and networks to lead change effectively.
Transformation Is Emotional Work
Change is unsettling. The Kubler-Ross Change Curve denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance is often lived out in council offices during transformation. Leaders must recognise this emotional journey and support staff through it. That means clear communication, psychological safety, and a commitment to wellbeing. Meena’s metaphor of “building a new ship while still sailing the old one” captures the tension perfectly. Councils must maintain essential services while redesigning their operating model. That requires not just technical skill but empathy, courage, and trust.
4. Systemic Barriers Persist
Despite the ambition and investment in transformation, systemic barriers continue to undermine progress across local government. Sector-wide data shows regression in digital strategy implementation: only 16% of UK public sector organisations had fully implemented their digital strategies in 2025, down from 23% in 2023. This decline reflects a troubling stagnation at a time when digital reform is more critical than ever. The Future Councils pilot, led by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), identified five persistent barriers that obstruct transformation across councils:
1. Data Silos
Legacy systems, departmental fragmentation, and proprietary platforms have created information silos that prevent councils from seeing the full picture. This leads to duplicated efforts, inconsistent decision-making, and missed opportunities for joined-up services. The Government’s roadmap to achieving trusted data highlights that breaking down silos is essential for collaboration, service delivery, and security.
2. Political Instability
The rise in councils with no overall control (NOC) now over 50% of all UK local authorities has created governance uncertainty and strategic drift. Leadership turnover and shifting political priorities make it difficult to sustain long-term transformation programmes. Councils often struggle to maintain momentum when elected members and senior officers are misaligned or frequently replaced.
3. Resistance to Change
Change fatigue is real. Staff often face back-to-back initiatives without clarity or support. Research shows that resistance is not to change itself, but to uncertainty and lack of involvement. Councils must invest in internal communications, psychological safety, and inclusive engagement to overcome this barrier.
4. Lack of Internal Communications
Fragmented communication channels, poor document management, and low adoption of internal tools hinder staff engagement. A recent case study showed that 70% of time was lost searching for documents, and 60% of staff felt disengaged due to ineffective internal comms. Councils must embrace omnichannel communication, personalise messaging, and foster feedback loops to build trust and alignment.
5. Misalignment Between Officers and Members
Strategic misalignment between elected members and senior officers is a silent killer of transformation. Studies show that only 14% of employees understand their organisation’s strategic initiatives, and less than 10% of organisations successfully execute them. Councils must invest in shared visioning, joint leadership development, and transparent governance to bridge this gap.
These barriers are not insurmountable but they require sector-wide collaboration, leadership courage, and a shift in mindset. As the Future Councils report concludes, transformation cannot be achieved by individual councils tackling the same problems in isolation. A collective effort, supported by central government, is needed to create the conditions for lasting change.
5. Lessons from Failure
Transformation in local government is complex, high-stakes, and often emotionally charged. When it fails, the consequences ripple across services, staff morale, and public trust. Understanding the common pitfalls is essential for councils seeking to avoid repeating the mistakes of others.
Transformation fails when:
Leadership isn’t aligned
Research from the Transformation Leadership Institute shows that misaligned leadership is one of the most common causes of failure. Without a shared vision, clear success metrics, and unified messaging, transformation efforts stall or fracture. Councils must invest time upfront to align Cabinet, Chief Executives, and senior officers around a common purpose.
Staff aren’t engaged or upskilled
EY’s Tech Horizon Study found that organisations that embed learning into transformation are 2.6x more likely to succeed. Yet many councils still treat staff development as an afterthought. Upskilling is not optional it’s foundational. Without it, staff feel excluded, overwhelmed, or threatened by change.
Internal communications are weak
According to DeskAlerts, 70% of transformation projects fail due to poor internal communication. Councils must move beyond email and intranet updates to create multi-channel, real-time communication strategies that engage staff, track understanding, and foster feedback.
Change is imposed, not co-created
The Local Government Association stresses that transformation must be co-designed with staff and residents. Imposed change breeds resistance. Co-created change builds ownership, trust, and momentum.
Vision isn’t sustained post-implementation
Audit Scotland warns that councils often lose sight of their transformation goals once the initial programme ends. Without strategic governance and embedded operating principles, the vision fades and old habits return. Councils must build transformation into their DNA not just their delivery plans.
“You have to build a new ship while still sailing the old one.” Meena Kishinani
This metaphor captures the tension perfectly. Councils must maintain essential services while redesigning their operating model. That requires not just technical skill but empathy, courage, and trust.
6. Sustaining the Vision
Transformation doesn’t end with implementation it begins a new chapter. Councils that treat transformation as a one-off project risk losing momentum, reverting to old habits, and undermining the very progress they’ve made. To sustain the vision, transformation must be embedded into the operating principles, culture, and capabilities of the organisation.
Embedding Operating Principles
Operating principles are the behavioural and strategic anchors that guide decision-making, service design, and leadership. Councils like Clackmannanshire and Essex have developed Target Operating Models (TOMs) that embed transformation into everyday governance, ensuring consistency across departments and resilience against political or leadership change.
Embedding these principles into appraisals, inductions, and training ensures that transformation is not just remembered but lived. As Meena Kishinani notes, this helps maintain coherence and accountability across the organisation, even when external pressures mount.
Upskilling for the Future Especially AI
The rise of AI presents both opportunity and risk. The UK Government’s AI Accelerator Programme and AI Skills Action Plan aim to upskill 7.5 million workers by 2030, including 100,000 civil servants, to ensure public services are not left behind. Councils must invest in AI literacy, ethical data use, and digital confidence across their workforce not just in IT teams. This means:
Offering AI training pathways for frontline staff
Embedding data governance and ethics into digital strategy
Creating multidisciplinary innovation teams that include service users, technologists, and policy leads
Ethical Governance Must Guide Innovation
As AI and automation become more embedded in local government, ethical governance becomes non-negotiable. Councils must adopt frameworks that ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in algorithmic decision-making. The LGiU’s Future Local Lab and the Ethical AI Playbook recommend:
Publishing clear policies on how AI is used in service delivery
Engaging residents in co-designing digital tools
Ensuring explainability and human oversight in automated systems
Post-Implementation Strategy Is Essential
Transformation must be sustained through ongoing strategy, not just post-project reviews. Councils like New Forest and Luton have developed multi-year transformation strategies that align with corporate plans, financial sustainability goals, and resident needs.
Here’s an in-depth review of the multi-year transformation strategies of New Forest District Council and Luton Borough Council, based on their published plans, governance frameworks, and implementation progress:
New Forest District Council: Future New Forest Transformation Strategy (2024–2028)
Overview
New Forest’s transformation strategy is tightly aligned with its Corporate Plan and spans four years (2024–2028). It was designed to modernise services, embed sustainability, and prepare the council for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), which will see NFDC dissolved and replaced by a unitary authority by April 2028.
Strategic Themes
The strategy is structured around four transformation pillars:
Customer and Digital Services – Improving online service delivery, reducing manual effort, and enhancing digital access.
People and Capabilities – Upskilling staff, evolving roles, and embedding new behaviours.
Assets and Accommodation – Reconfiguring workspaces and service hubs to support hybrid working and community access.
Finances and Delivery – Strengthening financial resilience and performance management.
Key Features
Flexible Design: Acknowledges the volatile political and economic context and allows for adaptive planning.
Staff Engagement: Summer 2023 workshops shaped the strategy, ensuring staff voice was central.
Data-Driven Decisions: Benchmarking and customer research informed priorities.
LGR Readiness: The strategy now serves as a transition tool to ensure NFDC staff, systems, and services are ready for vesting day.
Risks and Mitigation
Short-Term ROI: Many benefits won’t be realised before NFDC is dissolved, but the council argues that transformation is still essential to avoid service decline.
Uncertainty: The strategy is designed to be resilient to multiple LGR scenarios, including different unitary configurations.
Luton Borough Council: Luton 2040 Transformation Programme
Overview
Luton’s transformation is part of its ambitious Luton 2040 vision to become a healthy, fair, and sustainable town where no one lives in poverty. The programme is whole-organisation in scope and built around collaboration, data, and governance reform.
Strategic Priorities
Modern and Innovative Council – Delivering high-quality services through digital innovation and workforce investment.
Five Priority Workstreams – Identified in late 2023, covering finance, service redesign, data use, governance, and community engagement.
PMO and Governance – A new Programme Management Office (PMO) and toolkit were created to ensure consistent delivery and benefits tracking.
Key Features
External Challenge and Support: Local Partnerships provided governance and data insight support.
Data-Driven Transformation: Business Intelligence is used to design services and track outcomes.
Inclusive Delivery: Projects are led and designed by Luton staff, with external partners supporting where needed.
Innovation Network: A new internal network fosters creativity and secondment opportunities.
Digital Infrastructure
Luton’s Strategic Technology Roadmap (2024–2027) includes:
Cybersecurity upgrades
Datacentre refresh
Windows and mobile device replacements
WAN and PSTN switchover
ITSM and service desk improvements
Challenges
Budget Pressures: £180m removed from the budget over 14 years; a £25m gap remains.
Staff Confidence: Initial transformation efforts lacked internal engagement, leading to a shift toward co-designed delivery.
Siloed Services: The strategy aims to break down silos and promote borough-wide collaboration.
Comparative Insights
Feature | New Forest DC | Luton BC |
Transformation Horizon | 2024–2028 (aligned with LGR) | 2023–2040 (aligned with Luton 2040 vision) |
Drivers | Sustainability, digital access, LGR readiness | Poverty reduction, service innovation, financial resilience |
Governance | Council-led with adaptive planning | PMO-led with external challenge and internal ownership |
Digital Focus | Online services, data use, hybrid working | Full tech roadmap, cybersecurity, ITSM, device refresh |
Staff Engagement | Workshops and benchmarking | Innovation network, secondments, co-design |
Risks | LGR uncertainty, short-term ROI | Budget gaps, initial staff disengagement |
Conclusion: Transformation Is a Discipline, Not a Destination
Transformation in local government is not a box to tick it’s a discipline to cultivate. It demands more than a project plan or a new digital tool. It requires councils to embed operating principles into the very fabric of their organisations, to invest in their people, and to govern innovation ethically and transparently. Councils that succeed in transformation do so not because they avoided challenges, but because they embraced them with clarity, courage, and collaboration. They align leadership, engage staff, and co-create change with residents. They understand that transformation is not about moving faster it’s about moving together, with purpose. As Meena Kishinani wisely put it,
“You have to build a new ship while still sailing the old one.”
That means maintaining essential services while redesigning how they’re delivered. It means upskilling staff for the future, especially in the age of AI, and ensuring that every innovation is guided by ethical governance and resident need. Transformation is ongoing. Councils that treat it as a living discipline one that evolves with their communities will not only sustain their vision. They’ll shape the future of local government.
This blog post was sponsored by RPNA, who help local authorities to deliver projects and implement changes efficiently. They offer expertise in areas like leadership, wellbeing, technology, and commercial acumen, ensuring excellent value for money and meeting key priorities.
