The Local Government Challenge (LG Challenge), now in its 14th year, is the Local Government Association's (LGA) annual competition and officer leadership programme, where 10 aspiring local government leaders of the future face five demanding 24-hour challenges set by local authorities across England.
Tackling a range of service areas in a high-pressure environment provides the cohort with an invaluable development opportunity. Working in teams, contestants experience a breadth of councils and support each other to respond to situations outside their comfort zone.
Each member of the cohort is closely observed and assessed on their innovation and problem-solving, political awareness, business acumen, teamwork, communication and their ability to inspire and motivate others.
The LG Challenge is not only a fantastic opportunity for officers to tackle real-life issues that communities face, but the hosting authorities also gain fresh ideas and perspectives from a diverse group that aims to have a positive impact on local communities.
Last year's competition saw the contestants take on a diverse set of challenges across England. Starting at Buckinghamshire Council, they explored a regeneration question on how the council could build on existing plans to ensure they play a key role in retaining and re-attracting talent across the county.
Nottinghamshire CC, the second challenge focus was on how the council could meaningfully improve residents' ability to access good employment as a core building block of health, ensuring it becomes a priority within the council's business and leads to better outcomes for communities.
The cohort then travelled to Stroud DC for challenge three and worked on embedding the council's recently developed Community Engagement Principles across all services, developing practical approaches to strengthen participation and trust.
Harlow DC hosted the fourth challenge with a focus on procurement, tasking contestants with designing a new procurement model that embraced opportunities under the Procurement Act 2023, creating new approaches that were agile, faster and delivered added social value aligned with the council's corporate missions.
Finally, in Knowsley MBC, the fifth challenge asked for scalable and sustainable proposals to enable the career aspirations and earning potential of children and young people, by breaking the cycle of poverty and reducing inequalities.
The 2025 winner was Harriet Vitty from Liverpool City Council, who was awarded the scholarship for her project The Real Voice Framework, a proposal to integrate AI into the special educational needs and disabilities system, ensuring innovation supports lawful decision-making while also safeguarding co-production and amplifying the voices of children, young people and parents.
This year's 10 competitors, drawn from councils across the country, will be hosted by five local authorities between January and June 2026, supported every step of the way by the LGA.
Each host will set a local challenge on a live issue designed to test the skills and ingenuity of the cohort.
The first challenge will be hosted by Lambeth LBC and the final will take place at the LGA's Annual Conference in Bournemouth (7-9 July 2026).
At the end of the fifth challenge, four finalists – supported by their fellow competitors – will go head-to-head at the conference, pitching their individual proposals to delegates and judges in the hope of winning the coveted Bruce-Lockhart Scholarship.
Sponsored by Essex CC, the scholarship supports the development of the next generation of local leaders in honour of former LGA chairman Lord Bruce-Lockhart.
The track record of innovative ideas from previous LG Challenge winners is impressive and demonstrates the valuable legacy of the programme. Winning projects have included initiatives to combat summer learning loss through summer schools, strategies to reduce teenage conceptions and pioneering work in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and sustainable infrastructure.
Jack Sanders is programme support officer – leadership and talent at the Local Government Association
Meet the 2026 cohort
Aaron Clarke, democratic services officer, South Cambridgeshire D
Claire Goldsworthy, training officer, Cornwall Council Eden Singh, principal tenant engagement officer, Fareham BC
Harrison Giles, senior analyst, Norfolk CC
Karl Falconer, project manager (devolution), Cumberland Council
N'jaindeh Lungoci, project and services improvement officer, Hackney LBC
Nadia Hussain, area co-ordinator, Bradford Council
Shannon Kennedy, place-based community safety engagement officer, Wirral MBC
Tara Hudson, digital communications manager, Lewisham LBC
Victoria Lewis, principal policy officer, Bolton MBC
