LGR contracts: The Surrey story

Law firm Bevan Brittan is currently assisting Surrey CC as it goes through local government reorganisation (LGR) and turning 12 councils into two. That means finding, documenting and managing the disaggregation of a large number of the council's contracts.These can range from thousands of care placements to major highway repair contracts. In addition, there is the aggregation of all the individual stipulations of the constituent predecessor districts and boroughs, each doing slightly differing things in the same arena, and each running on different procurement timelines.Key to managing the transfer of contracts through LGR is understanding the data. That includes not just the terms of the contracts, but how they are managed and applied on a day-to-day basis to enable them to be ready for their successful continuation on the other side of vesting day.Terence Herbert is chief executive of Surrey CC. Appointed as the lead for the implementation team under the Structural Changes Order, he describes his role as being to hold clarity of purpose while ensuring delivery at pace.Adding this to the understanding of the regulations and a good communication plan for discussion with the contractors will aid everyone's understanding and ensure a fruitful transition.The feedback from Asmat Hussain, director of law and governance at Surrey CC, so far is that being the monitoring officer (MO) at the council during the LGR process has been both interesting and challenging. He says it has been critical to quickly establish a good working relationship with the district and borough MOs, enabling more collaborative working and to understand the requirements of the programme for implementation.He says the establishment of the informal MO group from the outset of the draft Structural Change Order enabled them to discuss matters of interpretation and to navigate the political landscape that came with the draft order until its final stage.He underlines that identifying the senior responsible officer within the Structural Change Order and establishing an implementation team meant the authorities could work at pace, with greater focus on the needs of reorganisation and the development of a strong programme management team.Hussain says keeping members informed about the programme and establishing early voluntary joint committees for the new councils helped keep members engaged from the outset, building understanding and open lines of communication.In his view, using the ‘moving house' analogy assisted in explaining to the authorities what was required for putting a complex piece of legislation into more user-friendly terms to members and officers.He explains this ensures each room is ‘boxed up' and clearly labelled to move into the new house or unitary, so it can be ‘unpacked' and that there is no time for redesigning, but only for transitioning and being day-one ready, safe and legal.Terence Herbert is chief executive of Surrey CC. Appointed as the lead for the implementation team under the Structural Changes Order, he describes his role as being to hold clarity of purpose while ensuring delivery at pace.He says LGR demands strong governance, disciplined programme management and trust across councils, with solid legal support vital to ensure decisions are sound, lawful and properly assured.He adds that the focus has been on aligning leaders, members and officers around shared outcomes, managing risk pragmatically and creating the conditions for collaboration.Above all, he emphasises that the focus has been on getting the basics right, so the new councils are safe, legal and confidently ready from day one and able to serve residents well.Bevan Brittan's role in supporting Surrey CC has been to bring a team of governance, contract, employment, local authority company and additional specialisms together led by Kirtpal Kaur Aujla, David Kitson, Sarah Lamont and others.Our expertise and experience in these specialist areas, former local government lives, and the ability to have assisted other councils through the previous rounds of LGR, enables us to address the questions posed. It also helps those going through reorganisation while simultaneously delivering their day job to smooth out the challenges in the process.Philip McCourt is legal director at law firm Bevan Brittan

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REORGANISATION

LGR contracts: The Surrey story

By Philip McCourt | 20 May 2026

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