Our report Learning from the new unitary councils should provide an opportunity for the new Government to reflect on how local government reorganisation (LGR) develops as an option for the sector from here. In a time of constraints in national and local government finance and an era where recruitment, retention and succession planning show increasingly alarming gaps in the sector, LGR looks a necessary option in some geographies. The opportunity to scale up to provide better services, drive better procurement and maximise human talent feels attractive. The chance to set a new, holistic and more ambitious place narrative will also attract local politicians. Our review focused on the financial implications of LGR and the need for a robust control environment to support a successful implementation. The key lesson we found is that LGR needs to be properly thought through, properly resourced and, above all, implemented with a realistic timetable.

In addition to the demands and complexities of LGR the new unitary councils covered by our review were all impacted by the unprecedented, and still not fully understood, post-COVID-19 landscape and the financial challenges that this brought, including the significant additional demand for services. In most cases, these councils were established post pandemic and during a cost-of-living crisis with high inflation, which has added significant additional pressures to the councils' leadership and workforce and also tested their financial sustainability.