Council leaders call for a strategic, partnership-led approach to break the cycle of stalled projects
Uncertainty around shifting government policies and economic turbulence is having a major impact on councils’ ability to deliver regeneration, housing and infrastructure projects across England, with more than four in five local authorities reporting that they struggle to get projects beyond the business case stage.
As councils across the country look to turn national policy into regional delivery, SCAPE, a leading public-sector owned procurement specialist, surveyed 70 senior local and regional authority officers across 63 councils to understand how they are navigating these changes and where they need support to ensure delivery is not compromised.
Our Delivering Through Change report, produced in collaboration with the Local Government Information Unit, reveals how delivery capacity is under strain long before the first spade goes into the ground.
Development backlogs
While construction delays or supply chain issues are commonly blamed for project failures, 81% of senior council officers reported that the greatest disruptions occur during the business case development and approval stages.
Worryingly, the projects most exposed to disruption are also those with the highest long-term value for communities, including regeneration (58%), housing (51%) and transport (41%).
While they sit at the heart of national policy ambition, they require delivery conditions that are often hardest to sustain at a local level. We’ve seen that these multi-year, capital-intensive programmes tend to be reliant on stable funding and specialist expertise, making them particularly vulnerable to volatility at a national level.
Stop-start funding “toxic” to long-term planning
The report also highlights an overwhelming demand for change in the way projects are financed, with 94% of council officers calling for greater funding certainty or longer, multi-year settlements.
The current “stop-start” cycle of national funding and policy signals is proving toxic to long-term planning. When 64% of councils are grappling with cost inflation and market volatility, the lack of a predictable financial horizon makes it almost impossible to commit to intensive projects.
To deliver meaningful “levelling up” or “powering growth”, it’s important that central government doesn’t depend on one-off grants or competitive bidding wars that drain local resources. Stability is the currency councils need most.
Skills gaps and administrative restructuring ‘a brake on ambition’
Beyond finance, 40% of councils reported a shortage of in-house commercial and early-stage expertise as a key reason projects aren’t being delivered. In an environment where projects are becoming more complex, incorporating net zero targets and digital infrastructure, the inability to recruit and retain specialist staff is acting as a brake on local ambition.
Compounding this is the wave of local government reorganisation across the country. While devolution is often viewed as an opportunity, 33% of council officials say local government reorganisation is among the top three constraints on project delivery.
A common fear is that the early, vulnerable stages of project scoping will be lost in the shuffle of administrative restructuring. To prevent a lost decade of delivery, we must ensure that project pipelines remain protected even as governance models evolve.
The way forward
When asked what can be done to counter these challenges and improve delivery, 57% of councils said moving away from project-by-project struggles towards a strategic, partnership-led approach is the way forward.
Respondents identified long-term procurement frameworks with trusted partners as the most valuable foundation for resilience. These frameworks act as enablers, providing vital early-stage feasibility support and commercial advice.
An example of this approach can be seen with Arc Partnership, a joint venture between Nottinghamshire County Council and SCAPE, which has seen investment of £394m deliver more than 3,500 projects over the last decade.
A key benefit for Nottinghamshire has been that £344m has been spent locally, with 93% of work carried out by local SMEs, ensuring that the economic benefits stay within the community.
The effectiveness of this model over 10 years shows the value of combining public sector ambition with private sector commercial expertise under a long-term framework.
Done well, this approach can create a buffer against political and economic turbulence but it’s important that it’s tailored to local conditions. It’s a model that could be rolled out more widely in support of England overcoming the uncertainties and skills gaps that are standing in the way of achieving its national policy goals.
By embracing long-term partnerships and demanding a more stable relationship with central government, local authorities can finally bridge the gap between intent and implementation.
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