Will 2026 be the year of the Zombie council? - Blair McPherson

Blair McPherson

Are Local Authorities at risk of becoming Zombie organisations, alive but unable to think or act for themselves?

Like zombie companies, zombie councils are dependent on others for their survival. They are alive but unable to think or act for themselves.

Councils no longer decide which services to deliver for their local communities.

Sever restrictions on funding and years of austerity mean discretionary powers are meaningless as funding is stretched to fulfil statutory responsibilities such as emergency housing, child protection and adult social care

This financial crisis could lead to local authorities existing in a state of sustained operational paralysis, merely surviving rather than thriving or innovating, hence "zombie organisation".

Councils have been forced to cut valued, non-essential services like libraries, leisure centres, and street cleaning. Limiting their ability to serve local community needs more broadly.

Councils are increasingly dependent on central government for survival, which increasingly turns them into an arm of the state government, rather than an autonomous body serving local priorities.

Birmingham is one of a small group of Local Authorites to issue a Section 114 notice an admissions that they have run out of money. Nolonger in control of their own destiny but managed by unelected government appointed officials, reliant on temporary government support they are alive but unable to think or act for themselves. They are an example of the Zombie councils to come.

The National Audit Office has warned that nearly half of English councils are at risk of running out of money once temporary government support for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) spending expires.

Some have predicted the demise of Local Authorities with out a better, fairer funding system and less central control but worse and increasingly more likely is continued existence for many as the living dead.

Blair McPherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk

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