Maximising impact with limited resources in 2025

Local authority communications teams are poised to navigate one of the most transformative years in decades. As the Government's white paper on devolution reshapes the local government landscape, communicators must adapt to the challenges and opportunities this presents. With tight budgets, evolving expectations, and the pressing need for accessible, impactful messaging, 2025 calls for bold strategies and innovative thinking. This article brings together insights from industry experts, offering reflections, hopes, and actionable strategies to maximise impact with limited resources.

Navigating the biggest change to local government in the last half-century

”The Government’s white paper on devolution is a huge statement of intent, and signals a determination to complete the map of directly elected mayors across England and devolve key powers to the strategic authorities. Tied to re-organisation in two-tier council areas, this will be the biggest change to the local government landscape for 50 years, since county and district councils were created. 

“The challenges for communicators inherent in such seismic changes will already be emerging, but there is plenty of experience from places where such changes have already happened to tap in to, and that is where LGcomms will be focussing its efforts in the New Year.” 

Andrew Allsopp - Head of Profession Communications and Marketing, Essex County Council and Chair of LGcomms 

Three reflections and hopes for 2025 

1. The Labour Government will put more money into the public sector, and that some of it will trickle down into comms teams. If so, they can invest into much needed additional resources, which I would describe as the '3 P's' - people, platforms and purpose. 

2. That we'll see better corporate behaviour from some organisations and individuals, and that mental health and wellbeing is pushed even further up the priority list. There are still too many comms teams struggling here and without happy, healthy comms teams, their organisations will suffer the consequences. 

3. That we'll carry on seeing amazing work being delivered by public sector comms teams. The UnAwards 2024 were inspiring, and it reassures me that despite points one and two above, we are in very good hands. 

Darren Caveney, creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd 

For the public sector, 2025 is going to be all about savings. 

For communications and marketing teams that means reminding senior management of your true worth and demonstrating that you can have a pivotal role to play in contributing to the savings needed – and even in boosting budgets. 

Well-planned and executed comms campaigns based on insight and proven effective by robust evaluation should bring about three major improvements to support savings: 

• Switching off activities and paid channel use that doesn’t bring desired outcomes. 

• Changing behaviours among residents that saves on spend in the most expensive service areas like waste and recycling, adults and children's social care. 

• Focus campaign-planning on core strategic objectives and let other things go. 

If comms teams are also given permission to take charge of their organisations’ media estate (websites, e-newsletters, out-of-home) to market their own campaign messages free of charge they could make further savings. And if they used these owned channels for commercial advertising, they could generate new income to reinvest in campaigns to save even more. 

John-Paul Danon, Collaboration Director, CAN 

Reflecting on challenges and opportunities from a Scottish perspective for Local Authority communicators in 2025. 

From a personal professional point of view, work around digital inclusive and accessible communications should be kept front and centre of communication leaders' minds in 2025. A reminder from the CIPR research I co-authored this year; this work is not the sole responsibility of a passionate individual or the comms team. It's a whole organisation culture priority. It's not about the why, it's about the how. 

Those with operational responsibility for delivery need executive level support to move the dial on this work. The new European accessibility act comes into force in 2025 . It will be fascinating to see how this impacts on technological advancements (AI and other) to help make inclusive/accessible content easier and even more of a social norm for communications and wider professional practice. 

Budgets will continue to be a huge challenge for LA comms teams in 2025. Smart efficient use of digital channels is more important than ever. I'd like to help folk working in Scotland to show the so what impact reporting on their use of digital for campaign work. If we can't measure it - do we really need to do it? A question at the beginning of every campaign planning session and budget allocation point. 

Working together as a community when resource is lacking is also imperative. It's so important to find ways to share best practice, successes and the tactics that didn't work. The word of the year should be share! 
 
In Scotland, I would love to see much more confidence from Local Authorities in using their own powerful media estate to generate much needed income. 2025 is the year where comms teams should embrace opportunities around using web and email advertising, out of home audits and re-negotiation of contracts in this area. Working in partnership with other public sector organisations to promote each other's messages with the use of digital is a very exciting opportunity. It's time to be innovative to create income streams as part of the general transformation workstreams. It's not time to be shy about these very real opportunities. 

Leanne Hughes, Chart. PR, Lead for Scotland, CAN 

As we look ahead to 2025, it is clear that local authority communications teams will play a pivotal role in shaping how their organisations adapt to change and deliver value. By focusing on resourceful planning, meaningful collaboration, and data-driven campaigns, communicators can turn challenges into opportunities. Whether it's harnessing digital tools, promoting inclusivity, or leveraging owned media to generate income, the key to success lies in adaptability and innovation.

With shared best practices and a commitment to excellence, the public sector's comms teams are well-positioned to make a lasting impact in the year ahead.