How LATCos can solve reorganisation problems

The future does not belong to councils that keep refining inherited structures. It belongs to organisations that are flexible, networked, confident in partnership and willing to use different delivery models where they create better outcomes. We have been testing this through our Local Authority Trading Company (LATCo) LWM: not innovation for its own sake, but a more adaptive way of delivering public value.Our experience is that LATCos offer what councils increasingly need: delivery capacity, specialist/niche expertise and the ability to build practical partnerships. Done well, they bring in expertise, open new income streams and create delivery models that work for both the public and the private sector without losing public purpose.This matters even more during local government reorganisation (LGR). If we use this simply to redraw structures, we will get structural outcomes that focus on internal needs not resident outcomes. If we use it to rethink how services are provided, who provides them and how partnerships are formed, we can create models that are more resilient, responsive and better able to meet future demand.In conversations with fellow chief executives navigating LGR, one question keeps surfacing: how do we create delivery models that are agile enough to respond to change, commercial enough to sustain themselves and grounded enough to retain public accountability?LATCos keep returning to the debate because they can combine agility, commercial discipline and the ability to scale expertise beyond organisational boundaries.Too many LATCos compete in the overcrowded markets, selling similar services to the same public sector clients. The stronger approach is for LATCos to identify where the market is weak and build an offer that solves a real problem.That shaped how we built our own LWM LATCo – wholly owned by Lichfield DC. We chose not to create a council-owned mini-consultancy competing in the same market as everyone else. Instead, we focused on niches where need is real, the offer can stay affordable and the client base includes both councils and the private sector.The biggest risk for any LATCo is building around existing council structures rather than genuine market need. If the offer mirrors everyone else's, you end up competing on price instead of expertise and public sector credibility.So, we asked where capacity is scarce, where regulation is tightening and where councils and developers need practical, affordable advice that works in the real world.LWM now provides affordable talent acquisition, planning consultancy, biodiversity support, disabled facilities grant, leisure centre management and project delivery in areas where expertise is scarce and timescales are unforgiving.We shorten recruitment timeframes, help councils tackle backlogs and statutory duties and help developers navigate changing requirements with a partner that understands how local government decisions are made.LWM is quick to mobilise, transparent on price and able to support in-house teams without creating dependency. Because we are council-owned, clients also get a partner grounded in public accountability, political awareness and the realities of local government decision-making. LWM generates external income and returns a surplus to the council to support frontline services.When every budget line is contested, that combination of delivery and income matters. But growth built on undercutting neighbouring council companies is fragile. The sector does not need more council-owned entities chasing identical contracts, it needs sharper offers that reduce overall system cost.LGR will create bigger organisations, but bigger does not automatically mean better. New unitaries will inherit different systems, cultures and backlogs, and reorganisation can drain capacity just when delivery needs to accelerate. Yet this is also a once-in-a-generation chance to redesign services deliberately rather than inherit them by default. Too often, the ambition is to stay safe and legal: keep statutory services running, balance the books and avoid visible failure. Necessary, yes – but not a vision.LGR should be used to redesign services end-to-end, strip out avoidable demand and build models that are preventative, sustainable and flexible enough to meet changing demand.LATCos are not new, but the environment they face is. The real question is not whether to set up a company, but what challenge it will solve and whether it will make the system cheaper, faster and more reliable.If we want different outcomes for residents, we need to deliver differently, using LGR not just to redraw structures, but to design services fit for the future.If councils use this moment to rethink delivery, partnerships and capability, there is an opportunity to build services that are more sustainable, more responsive and better equipped for the future.Simon Fletcher is managing director of LWM and chief executive of Litchfield DC

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How LATCos can solve reorganisation problems

By Simon Fletcher | 11 June 2026

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