In the UK, the central government has its own “Government Digital Service” (GDS). Its remit is to help modernise UK government digital services by setting standards, building digital infrastructure, and in some cases creating core services itself.
The GDS has recently unveiled GDS Local, a new unit dedicated to enhancing digital collaboration between central and local government. Launched on 22nd November 2025, GDS Local aims to address the digital transformation needs outlined in the blueprint for a modern digital government, emphasising the importance of integrating local needs into national technology strategies.
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Many councils across the UK are showcasing the potential for digital transformation at the local level. The Local Government Association (LGA) has a portfolio of more than 30 use AI case studies, for instance, ranging from documenting meeting notes and creating first drafts, through supporting neurodiverse staff, to identifying and remedying potholes.
Procurement is a challenge
However local authorities face many challenges due to a technology market that doesn’t always fully support their needs, as well as the difficulties of defining requirements, and managing procurement and subsequent contracts effectively. Technology procurement has been a persistent challenge in UK Local Government, for example The State of Digital Government review published in January 2025, noted that market concentration, digital resourcing, supply chain dependency, and sector fragmentation are some of the key issues impacting the sector’s technology uptake.
GDS Local seeks to act as a strategic link, working with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the LGA to support local councils in understanding and designing services that meet community needs. According to the Government, this initiative is not about imposing solutions but about leveraging proven platforms and expertise to address large-scale challenges.
The newly established unit will focus on three critical areas: developing a strategic vision for local government technology, unlocking local data potential, and making GDS products more accessible to local authorities. GDS hopes to simplify access to local services by extending the use of its GOV.UK app and OneLogin (central features developed for central Government), potentially streamlining processes for residents. In the coming months, GDS Local will also engage with councils and technology vendors through webinars and workshops, co-designing a strategic vision for a local government technology stack.
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By GlobalDataCritical to its success, however, will be the extent to which GDS Local can integrate into the ongoing work in England on local government reorganisation (LGR). The recent state of digital government review specifically observed that “the inherent structure of local government increases fragmentation of talent, buying and systems.” LGR will be changing some of those inherent structures by merging councils in England which have been providing different services to the same geographical areas, reducing (although by no means eliminating) this fragmentation.
Currently, many councils are focused on simply how they can make the new governance work and ensure continuity of service. However it is by seeing LGR as an opportunity for genuine digital transformation that the real benefits of both structural change and new technology can support each other and make it more likely to realise both.
In the UK, there are important individual and organisational thought leaders both within, and in support of, the local government sector championing this more ambitious approach. At the organisational level, trade body TechUK and the LGA, for instance, have agreed a memorandum of understanding to help support each other with the challenges and opportunities that LGR presents.
Opportunity and danger for GDS Local
At the individual level, some council leaders have been trying to influence both their peers in local authorities and decision makers in central government to take full advantage of the opportunities for digital transformation that the UK governance changes may provide. At the chief officer level, for example, Jonathan Stephenson, Joint Chief Executive of Brentwood Borough Council & Rochford District Council, is speaking to a number of relevant think tanks, stressing his key message that “we can do better as a sector for our citizens if we do things less than 300 times as individual councils”.
There is currently both a real opportunity and a grave danger facing local government in England from the confluence of technological and governance considerations. The opportunity is to use the forthcoming governance changes to review the current fragmentation of approaches and consolidate both operating models and their enabling technology stacks. The danger is that the governance changes will absorb the available leadership bandwidth and will actually significantly delay the digital transformation of the local government sector.
In order to be successful, GDS Local will need to confront this issue head on and work effectively and ambitiously with those organisations and individuals who are keen to seize the potential opportunities. The alternative is that the sector will fall back to its risk-averse default and the moment will be lost.
