England is currently deep in another cycle of local government reorganisation. Nearly a third of the population, around 20 million people, still live in areas with two tier local government that policy makers argue slows decision making, fragments services and blurs accountability. The current programme continues to push toward the creation of single tier unitary authorities.
During 2025 and early 2026, 21 areas submitted more than 70 proposals to reshape their local government structures. Research from LGIU highlights just how varied those proposals are. Across those 21 regions, 38 different models were put forward, with proposed unitary authorities averaging populations of just over 544,000.
For those working inside councils, particularly in HR, payroll and workforce management, the headlines rarely capture the real story. Governance diagrams and structural charts only tell part of it. The real challenge lies in supporting the people who keep services running through months, sometimes years, of transition.
This is where HR and payroll functions become the connective tissue of the new authority. Local government reorganisation creates disruption, but it also opens a rare window to address issues that may have been too complex, too historical or too embedded to tackle before.
What follows is not a checklist but a journey through the seven themes that most often shape the experience of HR and payroll teams during local government reorganisation.
1. Seeing system consolidation as a once in a generation reset
Every local government reorganisation forces a moment of truth with systems. Finance may still be wrestling with its consolidation, IT may be deep in integration planning, but HR and payroll often feel the impact earliest because they sit so close to employee reality.
And while the temptation is always to make the old systems talk to each other long enough to get through day one, this moment can be something bigger. Councils rarely get the chance to rationalise foundational systems with this level of freedom, and certainly not with this level of necessity. Reorganisation gives you permission to ask questions that normally sit quietly in the background. Which parts of the digital employee experience genuinely work? Which parts frustrate managers? Which processes have been patched too many times to survive another cycle?
It is not about choosing new technology for its own sake. It is about building a digital backbone that makes life simpler for a workforce that is about to go through a huge amount of change.
2. Treating data migration as a long overdue clean-up
Most councils carry years of inherited data quirks. Field structures that no longer make sense. Legacy arrangements that no one fully remembers. Files that have been lifted and shifted through several system upgrades. When multiple authorities come together, those imperfections multiply.
The upcoming local government reorganisation makes it impossible to ignore them. Suddenly, the business case for serious data cleaning is not theoretical. It is essential.
The transition becomes a chance to rebuild a single, reliable version of the truth. One that aligns with GDPR expectations, reduces expensive workarounds, and gives senior leaders the accurate workforce picture they often wish they had. Instead of being a headache, this can be a surprisingly empowering phase of the journey because you are shaping the quality of information that the new authority will use to make decisions for many years to come.
3. Managing TUPE in a way that builds trust, not tension
TUPE is always one of the most sensitive stages of reorganisation. It is technical, legal and often misunderstood. But the scale of transfers involved in local government restructuring means it also becomes a test of leadership culture.
Handled well, TUPE can signal something important. It shows that the new authority intends to respect people, communicate clearly and treat inherited commitments with integrity. It is not just a process. It is an early demonstration of how the new organisation plans to behave.
And employees remember it. How transparent the communications felt. Whether HR teams were visible and accessible. Whether people understood what was happening instead of feeling like passengers. TUPE is one of those rare operational processes that shapes trust long before the new authority officially begins.
4. Using legacy payroll structures as an opportunity for fairness
The moment multiple councils merge, you inherit several different stories about pay. Different grading frameworks. Different allowances. Local agreements that made perfect sense at the time but do not map cleanly to each other now.
Many authorities know these misalignments exist but have never had the window or mandate to rationalise them. Reorganisation opens that window. It gives you a moment to step back, look across the entire workforce and ask what fairness should look like across the new authority.
It will never be a quick piece of work. And it will never be without difficult conversations. But this is one of the most meaningful long-term opportunities that restructuring creates. A chance to design something coherent, transparent and easier to navigate for future employees.
5. Keeping payroll steady while everything else moves
Every council that has been through reorganisation has a story about payroll. Not because things went wrong necessarily, but because payroll quietly sits at the centre of stability. While systems change, roles shift, teams merge and structures evolve, payroll has to deliver with absolute consistency.
It is one of the few functions that employees feel directly. If it slips, trust slips. And that means the pressure on payroll teams during reorganisation is immense.
Some authorities look to managed payroll services during transition to reduce risk and create breathing room for internal teams. Others focus on building additional controls, planning for dual running, or investing in specialist support. Whatever the route, the goal is the same. Keep the operational heart of the workforce beating steadily while the organisation reshapes around it.
6. Raising the bar on statutory reporting
During local government reorganisation, reporting is disrupted. For a period, you may need to run reports twice. Or reconcile data across authorities that never previously aligned. Or meet deadlines using systems that are technically on different paths.
And yet, this complexity is also a prompt to rethink reporting altogether. Instead of stitching legacy processes together, councils can use the transition to modernise how they handle statutory requirements. Automation becomes more attractive, standardisation becomes more possible and transparency becomes more achievable, precisely because the new authority will have a cleaner, more unified foundation to work from.
7. Standardising processes to make the new authority feel like one organisation
There is a moment in every reorganisation where people stop talking about structure and start talking about how the organisation works. How recruitment will operate. How absence will be recorded. How workflows will move through the system. This is where the new council becomes real for employees.
Bringing different processes together is not glamorous work, but it is transformative. It is what creates a consistent employee experience. It is what reduces the admin burden that everyone quietly puts up with. And it is what allows the new authority to behave like a single organisation instead of a federation of legacy processes.
Standardisation is not about tidiness. It is about future readiness.
Looking forward, not just managing through
One of the clearest messages from recent LGIU analysis is that councils risk becoming too focused on process mechanics during reorganisation. That the sheer size of the programme can drown out the bigger question of what they want their new governance and service models to achieve.
But HR and payroll are uniquely placed to keep the future in view. They are the parts of the organisation that experience the human impact of change most directly and understand the long-term value of getting the foundations right.
Reorganisation will always be disruptive, but it is also a rare moment when councils can genuinely redesign how they support, reward and organise their people. When they can fix structural issues that normally sit beyond their reach. When they can build something that feels lighter, clearer and more resilient than what came before.
And that might be the most valuable opportunity of all.
How Zellis can help during reorganisation
Zellis supports local authorities through the parts of reorganisation that matter most to people. From steadying payroll operations to helping teams modernise systems, clean up data and create more consistent ways of working, we bring practical experience at a moment when clarity is essential. If changes are on the horizon for your council, we can help you turn that shift into something smoother, simpler and more sustainable for the future.
