Borough councils set to agree on shared legal service

Guildford Borough Council and Waverley Borough Council are poised to agree on a shared legal service in an effort to bring £50,000 worth of savings to each local authority per annum, alongside other benefits.

Details: 12.Jun.2025

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Waverley members will consider the decision at an extraordinary meeting next week (17 June).

Under the plan, Guildford's legal services and information governance functions would be delegated to Waverley, which would become the lead authority for the provision of legal services from 1 July 2025.

Members are scheduled to discuss a report from Susan Sale, the joint strategic director for legal and democratic services and monitoring officer of both Guildford and Waverley councils, on Tuesday (17 June), which recommends proceeding with the arrangement.

This savings of at least £50,000 per authority will come from the reduction in senior-level posts and contract efficiencies, according to the report.

The roles affected at Guildford will include the legal services manager, information governance officer, and case team leader.

The roles affected at Waverley, meanwhile, include the borough solicitor, information governance team leader and legal business manager.

It is also anticipated that further savings will be delivered through single contracts for resources and by reducing external legal spend.

In addition, the report says that a merger would bring "considerable non-cashable benefits" such as increased resilience to cover sickness absence vacancies or increased workloads and improved succession planning and professional development for legal team staff.

Elsewhere, the report suggests that the shared service would provide the opportunity to increase income by taking on legal work from other public bodies.

Sale's report acknowledged that the Government's reorganisation agenda would result in further structural changes but said the prospect of reorganisation "is not a reason to delay making changes now which will benefit our residents and provide the best value for money".

It added that in providing financial savings and greater resilience, "there is significant potential for a joint team to make a positive contribution" to local government reorganisation.

Adam Carey