Up for grabs

The existing agreement was entered into in October 2009, before the Comprehensive Spending Review (and, as an aside, one month before Local Government Lawyer came into being). It will be interesting to see what the impact of the dramatically changed environment – both for local authorities and for legal services providers – is.

One immediately noteworthy feature of the LBLA's proposed new arrangements, though, is that there are just two lots. The first will cover “complex regeneration, development, property and planning”, while the second is for a “full range of legal services” (including litigation, commercial, property and other miscellaneous local government work). Some 16 firms were appointed to the current agreement, across a range of specialist areas.

The disciplines of legal services framework agreements meanwhile continue to make greater inroads into other areas of the public sector.

The amount in play with the LBLA is dwarfed by the £130m in advisory work theoretically on offer through NHS Shared Business Services. This has a more traditional approach in terms of the number of lots available. However, one intriguing aspect of the NHS Shared Business Services framework agreement is for legal services to be provided per lots on both a national and regional basis.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Network Housing Group – which collectively own and manages more than 17,500 homes across London and the South East – is establishing an agreement worth £2-4m over its lifetime.

Those responsible for preparing bids for law firms are in for a busy few weeks.