Specialist solicitors for local government

Our local government solicitors deliver bespoke, interactive sessions designed to equip elected members with the knowledge and confidence to carry out duties lawfully and effectively. These include:

Standards and Code of Conduct - How the code applies in practice, how complaints are handled, and the role of the standards committee

Managing in a political environment – The who’s who of member and officer roles and how they work together

Chairing skills  – How practical skills can help members navigate public meetings in accordance with their constitution

Planning committee – Fundamental training on the legal obligations members carry as decision-makers.

Whether you’re scoping a commercial opportunity, managing a conduct investigation, or restructuring how your authority makes and records decisions, we help you act with confidence and clarity.

Our local government solicitor team advises on the full spectrum of local authority powers including general power of competence, trading powers, commercial activities, financial powers, and the governance frameworks that underpin lawful decision-making. We help you build confidence in decisions before they’re made, reducing the risk of challenge and providing integrity to decision making.

Local government reorganisation is one of the most far‑reaching change programmes a council will ever manage, reshaping governance, services, assets, people and place identity in one move.

Our local government solicitors support councils through the full lifecycle of reorganisation – from shaping proposals and structural change orders, to designing transitional governance, and delivering through to vesting day and the transformation beyond.

We help Council’s with their Community Asset Transfer programmes leading into LGR.

Anthony Collins is trusted for calm, clear and pragmatic employment advice, regularly supporting councils and combined authorities on senior officer appointments, performance and exits, advising on the special severance payment rules that apply, attending committees to advise on complex employment decisions, defending tribunal claims, and equipping councillors through member workshops on topics such as running fair and robust dismissal appeal hearings.

LGPS employer obligations are increasingly complex.

Our local government lawyers advise councils, academy trusts, and other admitted bodies, on the full range of employer obligations under the LGPS. We’re also on the National LGPS Frameworks - the approved panel for local government pension scheme employers – giving participating authorities access to specialist pension law advice at preferential rates, without the burden of a full procurement exercise.

We help you manage your risk exposure, navigate disputes, and ensure your governance reflects current LGPS regulations and guidance. We deliver clear, practical advice that your finance and HR teams can use.

LGPS administering authorities operate in a tight regulatory space. We give LGPS funds clear, specialist pensions advice on governance documents, Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure complaints, employer admissions and exits, data‑sharing and regulatory compliance, grounded in a detailed understanding of how funds work in practice.

We understand that planning decisions are never purely legal, they carry public consequence, and we advise with that context in mind. Our planning and highways team supports councils to enable good development – helping secure planning permission, structure workable section 106 agreements and highway agreements, deliver highways adoption and unlock nationally significant infrastructure projects – helping them move from idea to delivery.

 Working alongside officers, members, external consultants and Counsel, our planning lawyers advise on the full range of planning and highways matters, including development management and regeneration, compulsory purchase in relation to regeneration and the unlocking of development opportunities, enforcement, infrastructure delivery, rights of way, bespoke planning and highways advice and judicial review.

Anthony Collins’ public procurement specialists give local authorities the clear, technical assurance they need to interpret the Procurement Act 2023 and the Provider Section Regime with confidence and to implement procurement processes that are just what is needed to achieve the best of outcomes for public benefit. We also help commissioners when they are faced with challenges to their procurements.

We make it our business to know the context within which a procurement is planned, we are practical in achieving the right route forwards and our advice is grounded in a clear grasp of the powers and duties of councils and their corporate and political aims.

We advise councils in the entire commissioning cycle, from before early market engagement through to contract award and post award contract management, bringing value and perspective across the process.

Organisations can be entitled to receive financial assistance from the Government, in the form of subsidy control, subject to meeting relevant criteria. We help local authorities, and those they work with, to understand the criteria and make the application process easier and less time-consuming, especially when working on wider projects.

We regularly provide advice on:

– whether there is a risk a project could involve a subsidy;
– services of public economic interest (SPEI), such as transport networks, social housing and social services;
– minimal financial assistance, allowing small amounts of subsidies to be given outside of all the requirements of the subsidy control regime;
– subsidy control as part of wider considerations when deciding on suitable alternative-delivery models for public services – including asset-transfer arrangements when spinning out services from councils and the buy-back of corporate support services, grant arrangements and other potential sources of financial assistance;
– subsidy control implications when councils undertake commercial activities; and
– restructuring projects to ensure there is no unlawful use of a subsidy

By providing practical advice we can help you to understand the subsidy control regime and its various rules and ensure correct application to guarantee public funds are used in the best and most cost-efficient way.

We help councils rationalise their land holdings and repurpose existing assets to unlock regeneration, support community-led uses and generate sustainable income. Working alongside your regeneration, finance and estates teams, we structure deals that align with your place-based ambitions, make best use of land and buildings, while ensuring decision are compliant with your statutory and subsidy control duties.

Local authority companies are often a core tool in how councils deliver services, manage risk and generate income, and our lawyers advise across the full LATCo lifecycle. Ranging from business case and governance design to shareholder arrangements, funding, restructures and winding-up where needed. Combining company law, local government powers and employment expertise, we help authorities set-up and run LATCos that are commercially aware, well-governed and firmly grounded in their public responsibilities.

Disputes are an inevitable part of public decision-making, and our disputes team helps local authorities manage litigation and resolve challenges in a way that protects public funds and maintains service continuity. The litigation services we provide to local government include:
– Judicial review
– Housing – Disrepair, Possession, Anti-social behaviour
– Property
– Procurement
– Construction and Infrastructure
– PFI
– Contracts and Commercial