Leicestershire County Council

Council Spending and Efficiency · drafted 2026-07-02 · accepted · 11 finding(s)

← council-level findings on this theme

2 Jul 2025In July 2025 full-council question time, Leader D. Harrison said Reform UK's DOGE unit had offered to assist Reform-minority-controlled councils and that he had invited DOGE to Leicestershire for an initial discussion, but stated that formally commissioning any review would be a Cabinet decision, not something DOGE's visit itself would constitute. [1]

28 Oct 2025Cabinet formally resolved on 28 October 2025 to award the Efficiency Review contract to the winning tenderer following a competitive procurement process (Newton Consulting Ltd), rather than taking up the DOGE offer. [2][3]

10 Nov 2025Scrutiny Commission minutes record that Leicestershire County Council does not have a vacancy freeze in place, relying instead on existing financial controls (management sign-off) rather than a formal freeze or vacancy-control regime. [4]

3 Dec 2025In a written answer at the 3 December 2025 County Council meeting, the Leader confirmed DOGE had been invited to the County Council for discussion at the 8 September 2025 Scrutiny Commission, but that the Administration decided instead to appoint a paid external consultant (Newton Consulting Ltd) to carry out the Efficiency Review, and stated Leicestershire had not been officially invited by Reform UK to conduct a DOGE audit. [5][6][7]

18 Feb 2026Leicestershire County Council formally adopted the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2026/27-2029/30 at Full Council on 18 February 2026 (motion moved by Mr Fowler, seconded by Mr Harrison), setting a net revenue budget for 2026/27 of £616.1 million incorporating the growth and savings for that year set out in Appendix C; the substantive motion was carried 39 for, 0 against, with 13 abstentions. [8][9][10]

11 May 2026At the 11 May 2026 Scrutiny Commission, the Leader said the Administration had commissioned this 'root and branch' efficiency review (via Newton, not DOGE) of Council spending, income and procurement because of a £90m budget gap, and that it had built an overall savings target of £102.6 million (£33.4m originally budgeted, raised to £44m, plus a further £60m identified by the external consultants). [11][12]

11 May 2026On 26 May 2026 Leicestershire County Council's Cabinet took a Key Decision approving the outcomes of its Efficiency Review and re-naming the revised Transformation Programme the 'Better Leicestershire Programme', targeting overall savings of £102.6m (built from an original £33.4m, raised to £44m, plus up to £60m identified with the help of external consultants Newton) to close an £85m budget gap by 2029/30; as explained to the Scrutiny Commission on 11 May 2026 ahead of that Cabinet decision, the savings would be pursued through a mix of organisational design, management-structure review, 'reduction in agency use', and wider efficiency measures — with no separate £ figure isolated for the agency-use strand alone. [13][14][15][16]

11 May 2026At the 11 May 2026 special County Council / Scrutiny Commission meeting discussing the MTFS savings programme, officers confirmed there was no intention to impose a recruitment freeze; the targeted savings were instead to be pursued through organisational design, review of management structures and reduced agency use, so Leicestershire has not adopted a recruitment-freeze decision. [17]

11 May 2026Leicestershire's Council-owned Efficiency Review (delivered with consultants Newton Consulting Ltd) is a named savings programme tied to the MTFS: the Leader told Scrutiny Commission on 11 May 2026 that £33.4m of savings originally built into the budget had been increased to £44m by officer work, with external consultants identifying further potential savings of up to £60m, giving an overall headline target of £102.6 million, expected to deliver payback within around three years. [18][19]

11 May 2026Officers confirmed to Scrutiny Commission that £44m of efficiencies had already been built into the MTFS before Newton Consulting's involvement, with a further £59m of additional savings developed with Newton's support as part of the same programme. [20]

26 May 2026The same 26 May 2026 Cabinet Key Decision approved up to £20m of investment (funded from reserves) to cover the net implementation costs of the Better Leicestershire Programme, and required further progress reports back to Cabinet and Scrutiny — this is the formal decision authorising the savings programme within which agency-use reduction sits, but the minutes record no discrete £ or % target specific to consultancy or agency/interim-staff spend, and no cap or Transparency Code reporting change for that spend was recorded. [21][22]

References (22)
  1. Minutes, 2 July 2025 “It has since become clear that DOGE has offered to assist councils with a Reform UK minority administration and I recently said to the Opposition Group Leaders that I have invited DOGE here for an initial discussion, although the commissioning of a review would be a matter for decision by the Cabinet, a key decision.”
  2. Minutes, 28 October 2025 “The Cabinet considered an exempt report of the Director of Corporate Resources which provided an update on the outcome of the procurement process to commission an external efficiency review and sought approval to award to the most advantageous tender following the completion of the evaluation process.”
  3. Minutes, 28 October 2025 “That approval be given to award to the most advantageous tender, as outlined at paragraph 27 of the report;”
  4. Minutes, 10 November 2025 “The Council does not have a vacancy freeze in place, but financial controls continued to be in place that provided an added layer of management oversight.”
  5. Minutes, 3 December 2025 “I confirmed they had been invited to the County Council. However, I also said at that same meeting I felt the appointment of an external consultant would be the best approach to address the high level of savings that the County Council was required to deliver. This is what the Administration ultimately decided to approve.”
  6. Minutes, 3 December 2025 “Not officially. However, Reform UK has said that it expected all councils it controls to be invited to conduct an audit. This is not the case in Leicestershire.”
  7. Minutes, 3 December 2025 “Newton was appointed on that basis and after an open procurement process to carry out the Efficiency Review.”
  8. Minutes, 18 February 2026 “It was moved by Mr Fowler and seconded by Mr Harrison”
  9. Minutes, 18 February 2026 “approval be given to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) which incorporates the recommended net revenue budget for 2026/27 totalling £616.1m as set out in the revised Appendices A, B and E of this report and includes the growth and savings for that year as set out in the revised Appendix C”
  10. Minutes, 18 February 2026 “The substantive motion was carried, with 39 members voting for the motion and 13 members abstaining.”
  11. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “the new administration had inherited a significant budget gap of £90 million and had therefore decided to commission a root and branch efficiency review of Council spending, income and procurement.”
  12. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “The Leader outlined that savings of £33.4 million had originally been built into the budget, which had been increased to £44 million through work with officers, and that external consultants had worked with the Council to identify further potential savings of up to £60 million, contributing to an overall target of £102.6 million.”
  13. Minutes, 26 May 2026 “That the revised Transformation Programme at Appendix A to the report be approved and re-named the Better Leicestershire Programme;”
  14. Minutes, 26 May 2026 “make progress towards closing the current gap of £85m by 2029/30.”
  15. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “external consultants had worked with the Council to identify further potential savings of up to £60 million, contributing to an overall target of £102.6 million.”
  16. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “the savings would instead be pursued through a combination of organisational design, review of management structures, reduction in agency use, and wider efficiency and effectiveness measures.”
  17. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “There was no intention to impose a recruitment freeze, explaining that the savings would instead be pursued through a combination of organisational design, review of management structures, reduction in agency use, and wider efficiency and effectiveness measures.”
  18. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “The Leader outlined that savings of £33.4 million had originally been built into the budget, which had been increased to £44 million through work with officers, and that external consultants had worked with the Council to identify further potential savings of up to £60 million, contributing to an overall target of £102.6 million.”
  19. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “the independent review had produced a rolling programme of action expected to deliver payback within around three years, target £60 million of savings”
  20. Minutes, 11 May 2026 “Efficiencies identified prior to Newton’s involvement had already been included within the MTFS to the value of £44m. The additional savings of £59m had been developed with Newton’s support.”
  21. Minutes, 26 May 2026 “That up to £20m of investment to fund the net implementation costs required to deliver the Better Leicestershire Programme be approved;”
  22. Minutes, 26 May 2026 “g) That further reports be made to the Cabinet and the Scrutiny Commission later in the year. (KEY DECISION)”