## [How LocalGov Drupal Drives LGR: The Essential Guide](/insight/how-localgov-drupal-drives-lgr-essential-guide) Body ![/sites/default/files/2026-06/lgr5_0.png](/sites/default/files/2026-06/lgr5_0.png) [Opinion](/insights?field_tags_target_id=55) 05 June 2026 | Duncan Davidson # How LocalGov Drupal Drives LGR: The Essential Guide *This concluding article brings together insights from our four-part series examining how LocalGov Drupal can support local authorities through the significant changes outlined in the English Devolution White Paper.* The paper represents the most significant shift in local government governance in England for half a century. With commitments to create Strategic Authorities covering all of England, reorganise two-tier areas into unitary councils, and devolve unprecedented powers to mayors, the scale of change facing local government is immense. At the heart of this transformation lies a critical but often overlooked component: the digital infrastructure that will enable authorities to: - Communicate clearly with residents - Deliver services efficiently - Maintain democratic accountability throughout complex transitions Throughout this series, we've explored how [LocalGov Drupal](https://rohallion.agency/service/introducing-localgov-drupal), the open source platform built by councils for councils, provides practical solutions to the digital challenges of devolution and reorganisation. ## How to approach devolution’s digital challenge The white paper's ambitions are clear: "growth that can be felt in the pockets of working people" and "politics being done with communities, not to them." Achieving these goals requires more than policy changes, it demands digital infrastructure that can: - Support the merger of services and systems as councils consolidate - Communicate complex governance arrangements clearly to residents - Enable meaningful engagement on strategic plans and decisions - Maintain democratic accountability across larger geographic areas - Reduce costs through standardisation while preserving local flexibility Traditional approaches to council websites, bespoke developments commissioned independently by each authority, struggle to meet these requirements. The result has been: - Duplication of effort - Inconsistent user experiences - Digital estates that are expensive to maintain and difficult to evolve LocalGov Drupal offers a different model: collaborative development of shared infrastructure that reduces costs while improving quality, backed by a community of practitioners solving common problems together. ## What we learned: Four vital areas for digital support **1. Achieving efficiency through standardisation** Our first article explored how [LocalGov Drupal can help deliver the efficiency gains](https://rohallion.agency/insight/local-government-devolution-efficiency-through-technology) that underpin the government's reorganisation agenda. The white paper cites potential savings of £500 million annually through creating larger, more efficient unitary councils. Digital infrastructure plays a crucial role in realising these savings. LocalGov Drupal can reduce website development costs by up to 80% compared to bespoke builds, with deployment times of 8-12 weeks rather than the typical year-long development cycle. These savings come from shared development across 70+ councils who collectively maintain and improve the platform. But efficiency isn't just about lower costs – it's about doing things once, well, and making that work available to everyone. When one council solves a problem, that solution becomes available to all, eliminating the waste of multiple authorities commissioning separate development for identical requirements. **2. Supporting digital integration during transitions** Our second article examined [the practical challenges of integrating digital systems when councils merge](https://rohallion.agency/insight/exploring-digital-integration-new-strategic-authorities-and-unitary-councils). Creating new unitary authorities or Strategic Authorities means bringing together websites, content, and services from multiple predecessor organisations. The Cumbria reorganisation vividly demonstrates these challenges. When Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council were created on 1 April 2023, they couldn't migrate all digital content from six former district councils overnight. Residents needed immediate access to services, but many remained temporarily hosted on legacy websites. Rohallion's solution involved intelligent postcode-based routing that directs residents to the correct information for their specific area. On waste collection, for example, residents can either select their former district if they know it, or enter their postcode, for automatic routing whether to the new council website or temporarily to a legacy platform. This approach built on our earlier work [developing a waste collection tool](https://rohallion.agency/insight/reducing-waste-collection-enquiries-better-digital-services) that uses location intelligence to personalise information. That project addressed the challenge that waste collection enquiries account for 40% of council web traffic. By enabling residents to enter their postcode and receive personalised information about collection schedules and recycling, councils can dramatically reduce enquiry volumes. **3. Communicating new governance structures clearly** Our third article explored [how the statutory Devolution Framework creates complex new governance arrangements](https://rohallion.agency/insight/supporting-statutory-devolution-framework-through-digital-clarity) that must be clearly communicated to residents. The framework establishes three tiers of Strategic Authority, each with different powers across transport, skills, housing, planning, economic development, environment, and public safety. The white paper is explicit that residents need to understand clearly who is responsible for what in their area to enable accountability. Digital platforms must translate these abstract governance structures into practical information residents can use. LocalGov Drupal's service-oriented architecture provides a natural framework for this. Service pages clearly establish which authority is responsible for different functions, with consistent navigation patterns helping users understand relationships between local, strategic, and national government. The Cumbria postcode routing demonstrates this principle in practice. Rather than expecting residents to understand which former district council covered their area, or which services have migrated to the new unitary authority, the system simply asks for a postcode and routes them correctly. This approach is equally valuable for the Devolution Framework, where residents need to understand whether transport, skills, or planning services are delivered by their local authority, Strategic Authority, or remain with national government. **4. Enabling engagement and accountability** Our fourth article examined [how devolution creates dual challenges](https://rohallion.agency/insight/how-localgov-drupal-supports-strategic-planning-and-accountability-during-lgr): consulting meaningfully on strategic plans while maintaining democratic accountability and community empowerment. The white paper creates statutory requirements for Mayoral Strategic Authorities to produce Local Growth Plans and requires all areas to develop Spatial Development Strategies. These technical documents must be made accessible and subject to genuine consultation. LocalGov Drupal supports these requirements through its community collaboration model. When authorities identify common needs, they can work together to develop shared solutions rather than each commissioning separate development. ## What the work has in common Across waste collection, elections reporting, and the Cumbria transition work, a few things show up consistently. The most important is probably the simplest: good digital services absorb complexity rather than passing it to residents. Whether that's collection zones and recycling schedules, or the question of which former district council covers a particular postcode, users shouldn't need to understand the underlying structure to get to the right answer. The waste collection tool and the Cumbria routing both apply the same principle. Enter a postcode, get the relevant information, even though the problems they're solving are quite different. Location intelligence runs through all of it for the same reason. Postcodes are something residents already know. Building services around them, rather than around administrative boundaries or organisational structures, is what makes the difference between a digital service that reduces contact centre demand and one that generates it. The Cumbria work also reflects something that tends to get underestimated in reorganisation planning: services don't transfer cleanly on a single date. Content migrates in phases, legacy platforms stay live longer than anyone intends, and residents need correct information throughout. Digital infrastructure designed to accommodate that reality, rather than assuming a clean cutover, is considerably more useful. Perhaps the most transferable lesson across the series is about building on what already works. The Cumbria routing adapted patterns proven in the waste collection tool. The Elections module's approach to geographic boundaries is directly relevant to spatial planning and Local Growth Plans. The devolution agenda will generate new problems, but many of them will have structural similarities to problems that have already been solved, whether by Rohallion, by other LocalGov Drupal community members, or by both working together. Which brings us to the final point. When the [Elections module](https://rohallion.agency/insight/developing-easier-way-report-election-results) was open-sourced, the investment made by Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council became available to every council on the platform. That's the logic of the LocalGov Drupal community: solutions developed in one place reduce the cost and effort of solving the same problem everywhere else. As the devolution agenda drives more authorities to tackle common challenges, merging digital estates, communicating new governance structures, enabling consultation on strategic plans, that collaborative model becomes more valuable, not less. ## Getting started with LocalGov Drupal LocalGov Drupal isn't just a platform: it's a community of councils solving common problems together. By joining, authorities facing reorganisation or taking on new devolved powers gain access to shared infrastructure, accumulated knowledge, and peers who have navigated similar challenges. The solutions described across this series didn't emerge from a single project. They were built on, contributed back to, and improved by that collective effort. ## How can we help? If you'd like to talk through what LocalGov Drupal could mean for your authority, whether you're at the early thinking stage or already deep in a reorganisation, we're happy to have that conversation. ![](/themes/custom/rohallion/images/home-header-overlay.svg) Learn how we can make LGR easier for you Simply fill in this form with your key details and we'll be in touch. Link [Start Now](/start-a-project)