Why economic ambition must stay front and centre through Local Government re-organisation.
Metro Dynamics and 31ten have formed a strategic partnership that brings together complementary expertise across local growth, public sector reform, regeneration and investment, helping places navigate transition while maintaining focus on long-term economic outcomes. Drawing on extensive experience supporting local authorities through devolution, organisational change and LGR proposals, we work alongside leaders to embed economic ambition at the heart of emerging structures.
As LGR progresses, the places that succeed will be those that move early to define a clear economic narrative, maintain delivery momentum, and build organisations that are explicitly designed to drive growth. Our role is to help make that happen and turn transition into an opportunity to strengthen, not stall, local economic performance.
We're hosting a virtual round table specifically on LGR and how to maintain the focus on growth as the LGR process unfurls on 12th June at 9.30am - 11.00am. You'll hear directly from local government leaders who have been through LGR so you can ask them your questions on why and how to put growth at the heart of LGR.
By James Thompson, Senior Consultant, Metro Dynamics
Ahead of the recent 2026 local elections YouGov polling found that while roads and potholes remain the most frequently cited local concern (37%), the economy and cost of living come a close second (35%), followed by the NHS at 29% of those surveyed.
Despite divided electoral outcomes, the underlying message from voters is consistent: people are aligned around a core set of challenges focused on everyday services and economic pressures.
This is telling. It reinforces something at risk of being overlooked in current discussions around local government: growth as central to how people experience their place.
For residents, the ‘economy’ is not a macroeconomic concept. It is about:
The availability of good jobs
The affordability of everyday life
The strength of local high streets and centres
The sense that their area is improving rather than standing still
At its core, economic growth underpins household security through jobs and wages, drives innovation and productivity that supports resilience, and sustains public services via a stronger local tax base.
Growth is therefore about expanding the size of the pie, not simply redistributing an ever more constrained one.
At a time when residents are acutely feeling cost-of-living pressures, economic growth is foundational to future sense of security and progress.
Shifting the focus from growth at this crucial moment risk long-term downsides
Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) represents one of the most significant changes to England’s governance landscape in decades. The Government aims to replace County and District councils with Unitary councils for regions encompassing 35% of the English population. This objective is intended to streamline administrative structures, enhance service delivery, and facilitate more strategic, place-based decision-making.
Across the country, councils have moved rapidly to develop and submit proposals for alternative Unitarisation arrangements and geographies.
As the Government evaluates which proposals to endorse, attention among Councils is understandably transitioning from establishing cases to an examination of delivery mechanisms, organisational structures, and change-management strategies necessary following decisions regarding administrative boundaries.
This is an understandable transition, but it creates a risk.
As attention turns to organisational design, governance, and transition planning, economic growth risks being implicitly deprioritised – treated as ‘phase two’ once the new structures are in place.
This would be a mistake and a missed opportunity.
LGR is unfolding in a context of sustained financial pressure on local authorities, rising expectations from central government to contribute to the national growth mission, and intensifying competition for both public and private investment.
If growth in places stalls, the impacts could include:
Weaker job creation, with fewer opportunities for residents locally
Slower productivity growth, limiting wage improvements and economic resilience
Reduced credibility with Government, weakening the case for future funding and devolution
Lower investor confidence, particularly where institutional clarity is lacking, creating confusion over decision-making authority and strategic leadership
Stagnating local revenues, including business rates that underpin fiscal sustainability
In effect, areas navigating LGR risk falling behind those that are not simply because focus has shifted away from growth at a critical moment. This risk is compounded by the Government’s wider devolution agenda, as it rolls out Foundational Strategic Authorities, particularly across the South and East of England, where many places are simultaneously undergoing LGR.
Government is placing increasing emphasis on evidence of effective cross-boundary collaboration, strategic alignment, and the ability to operate at scale on major economic challenges such as housing, infrastructure, and the economy. Where LGR disrupts established relationships, diverts leadership attention, or delays the formation of coherent strategic partnerships, places may struggle to demonstrate this capability at the point decisions on powers, funding, and institutional status are being made. As a result, there is a real risk that, without a clear and sustained focus on collaboration and growth through the transition, areas could stall or weaken their case for securing broader devolution.
The role of new Unitary Authorities in driving growth
Unitary authorities sit at the heart of the local growth system.
While formal economic development functions may represent only a small share of overall budgets, the wider levers available to Unitaries, whether that be planning, infrastructure, regeneration, or skills, are fundamental to shaping local economic outcomes.
Growth is inseparable from how these functions are exercised. Planning decisions shape investment and housing supply; infrastructure determines connectivity and access to labour markets; skills systems influence workforce readiness; and regeneration unlocks opportunities in places that need it most. A strong local economy, in turn, reinforces an authority’s wider role by increasing revenues, attracting investment more easily, and reducing long-term service pressures.
LGR presents a dual opportunity:
To redesign institutions for more effective service delivery
To strengthen the foundations for long-term economic growth, including through the more efficient and coordinated use of assets and infrastructure
Three critical behaviours for protecting growth through transition
To maintain momentum, emerging unitary authorities need to demonstrate three essential behaviours: understanding, convening and stewardship
1.Strategy & intelligence: understanding your place
Effective growth begins with a deep and shared understanding of the local economy. This requires a clear view of how the place functions today and where its future opportunities lie – grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
This means developing a clear picture of:
Core opportunities and structural constraints
Spatial patterns of growth and labour markets
Existing and emerging sectoral strengths
The interdependencies between places within wider economic geographies
Critically, economic geographies do not reset when administrative boundaries change. Without a clear understanding of these dynamics, there is a risk that LGR leads to fragmented or incoherent growth strategies. A robust evidence base, owned and shared across partners, provides the foundation for coherent decision making.
2.Convening & relationships: holding the growth system together
If understanding provides clarity, convening provides cohesion. Unitary authorities have a uniquely important role as system leaders, bringing together businesses, investors, anchor institutions, and delivery partners across skills, infrastructure and regeneration.
LGR may introduce uncertainty into these relationships. Changes to geography, leadership and institutional arrangements can create hesitation among partners and investors.
In this context, visible and consistent convening becomes critical, particularly in areas where future devolution is an ambition.
Emerging unitaries must maintain and strengthen relationships to:
Preserve confidence in the area’s growth trajectory
Ensure continuity in major investment programmes
Align public, private and institutional action
Provide a clear and stable narrative to Government and investors
3.Delivery & stewardship: protecting momentum
Ultimately growth is delivered, not just planned. Through LGR, this means maintaining existing programmes and refining future delivery to actively steward more effective growth outcomes.
Authorities best placed to do this are those that combine strong economic insight with clear priorities and established partnerships. During transition, the emphasis must be on continuity, ensuring that organisational change does not slow progress on the ground.
This places a premium on designing transition arrangements that protect:
Delivery capacity
Decision-making pace
Partnership working
Conclusion
LGR is being framed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape public services and governance.
But its success will ultimately be judged not by organisational and governance models, but by outcomes.
There is a real danger that, in focusing on the complexities of transition, growth becomes an afterthought.
Local leaders face the challenge of ensuring that growth is addressed proactively and responsibly through LGR, integrating it into new organisational structures from the outset, embedding it within decision-making processes, and maintaining its momentum throughout the period of transition.