A view from Stand P27: LGA Annual Conference 2026

By Rich Brown, Head of Marketing, Liberata

There is always a lot to take in at the LGA Annual Conference. Packed exhibition halls, busy fringe sessions, familiar faces, new conversations, and plenty of discussion about where local government goes next.

For us, it was a chance to listen as much as talk with councillors, Local Authority leaders, and senior officers.

Across the three days in Bournemouth, two themes kept coming up:

The growing challenge of resident debt, and,
The operational reality of Local Government Reorganisation.

That wasn’t unexpected. Councils are dealing with significant financial pressure, and residents are facing more complex financial circumstances of their own. For those going through LGR, there are big questions around protecting income, migrating systems and data, and keeping services running throughout.

But the mood was not downbeat. Far from it. What stood out was how practical the conversations were. People weren’t just talking about the scale of the challenge. They wanted to understand what could be done, where the opportunities are, and how to make better decisions with the information available.

Debt and LGR aren’t separate conversations

For councils going through LGR, keeping income flowing is critical. Council tax, business rates, benefits processing, customer contact, and debt recovery all need to keep working while the structures, systems, and teams around them change.

At the same time, historic and aged debt doesn’t just disappear because reorganisation is happening. It still needs to be understood, prioritised and handled carefully.

That’s where the conversations got interesting. Debt isn’t only a recovery issue; it’s a potential funding source too. A better approach to recovery affects financial resilience, resident support, bad-debt provision, and the opening position of any new authority.

Seeing the numbers

One of the most useful parts of the event was moving from general discussion to actual figures.

Using our LGR and Debt Calculator, we could show a council its own council tax and business rates collection figures, its current debt position, and what opportunities could be unlocked.

For those involved in a proposed or confirmed new unitary, it went further. We could bring in the other councils in the reorganisation and show the real picture across all of them side by side:

Which systems each was running and would need integrating,
How collection rates varied district by district and where there was room to optimise,
The scale of debt across the districts and where a fairer, more supportive approach could improve outcomes, and,
How benefits claims performance compared.

Those moments changed the conversation. Instead of talking in broad terms about pressure, we were looking at specific numbers, specific gaps, and what might be worth exploring next, all of which helps councils see something useful in their own data, not just hear our opinion on it.

A positive conversation about difficult issues

Debt, vulnerability and LGR are not easy subjects. They involve financial pressure, operational risk and a real impact on residents.

But if there was one thing the LGA Annual Conference 2026 made clear, it’s that council leaders aren’t short of ambition. There’s a clear appetite to act earlier, to understand the evidence available, and to find practical ways to improve outcomes.

Thank you to everyone who visited us on our stand. If we spoke in Bournemouth, we look forward to continuing the conversation. If we missed you, there is still plenty to talk about.

Explore our LGR support, Debt Assist service or Revenues and Benefits benchmarking tool or get in touch to discuss what the figures could mean for your council.

Rich Brown is Head of Marketing at Liberata, leading strategic marketing across services that support local government. He specialises in turning complex policy and operational challenges into clear, practical propositions, with a particular focus on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), Revenues and Benefits, Debt Assist, and ERP services. Rich writes about the issues shaping the sector and the practical solutions that help councils improve outcomes for residents.