The Local Government Challenge, now in its thirteenth year, is the LGA's annual competition and leadership programme, where 10 aspiring local government leaders of the future face five 24-hour challenges set by local authorities across England.
Last year's competition saw the 10 contestants facing challenges that: helped reduce food waste and increase recycling and reuse across Newcastle City Council; created marketing plans to connect three local heritage sites across Calderdale MBC; developed proposals at Wiltshire Council to mitigate against the risk of the household support fund potentially ending; tackled a strategic question about transformation and intervention approaches to stronger communities in Waltham Forest LBC; and finally, authored research papers on how Telford & Wrekin Council could use AI to reduce inequalities and improve the lives of residents across the borough.
The track record of innovative ideas from previous LG Challenge winners is impressive and demonstrates the valuable legacy of the programme
Tackling a range of service areas in a demanding environment provides the cohort with an invaluable development opportunity. Working in teams, contestants have the chance to 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; team working, 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- the hosting authorities also gain fresh ideas and perspectives from a diverse cohort that aim to have a positive impact on local communities.
This year's 10 competitors from authorities across the country, will be hosted by five local councils between January and May 2025 and be in the running to win the Bruce-Lockhart Scholarship, supported every step of the way by the LGA.
Each host will set a local challenge on a live issue which aims to test the skills and ingenuity of the cohort. In January the cohort will embark on their leadership journey at the first challenge set to be hosted by Buckinghamshire Council.
At the end of the fifth challenge, four finalists, supported by their fellow competitors, travel to the LGA's Annual Conference (Liverpool, 1-3 July 2025), to go head-to-head as they pitch their individual proposals to delegates and judges in the hope of winning the coveted scholarship. Sponsored by Essex and Kent County Councils, the scholarship supports the development of the next generation of local leaders in honour of Lord Bruce-Lockhart, former Leader of Kent County Council and LGA Chairman.
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 a focus on supporting communities such as the development of a summer schools programme to combat summer learning loss, and a research project that evaluated the most effective strategies to reduce the number of teenage conceptions. Whilst other winners have undertaken work in new emerging areas for the sector, such as leveraging the power of artificial intelligence for the benefit of local government and embracing technological advances to improve road quality via a recycled materials scheme.
The 2024 winner was Faith Scott-Deuchar at Islington LBC, whose winning proposal was a research project to identify, understand and address the risks of disengagement with early help services. The project is seeking to understand why some families disengage from early help services, what the impact is when they do, and how to prevent or reverse disengagement.
Host councils and contestants for the 2025 cycle have been selected and while the format and topics of each challenge remains a closely guarded secret until the contestants' arrival, challenges will always have a focus on generating the best solutions for local residents and across a mixture of approaches from front-line or financial, to marketing or community engagement.
We look forward to sharing more from the journey of the cohort in 2025.
The 2025 cohort are:
Mike Campbell, Senior Transformation Programme Manager, Waltham Forest LBC
Angelo Da Costa Mengowako, Commissioning Officer, Tower Hamlets LBC
Shohum Dave, Senior Auditor and Fraud Analyst, Fareham BC
Rebecca Dentith, Business Change Analyst, North Yorkshire Council
Jess Finnin, Cohesive Communities Manager, Havering LBC
Adeel Hussain, Registration & Nationality Services Manager & Proper Officer, Surrey CC
Amy Lipley, Senior Policy and Insights Officer, Basildon BC
Aoife O'Gorman, Regeneration and Place Programme Officer, Warwickshire CC
Helen Potter, Insight Manager, Telford & Wrekin Council
Harriet Vitty, Lawyer - Education & SEN, Liverpool City Council
Michael Barrett and Virginia Ponton are leadership advisers, Local Government Association
