Previously untapped insights from large volumes of anonymised diagnostic images could enable ground-breaking research and medical innovations needed to enhance patient care, following a first of its kind technology deployment in the NHS.
Barts Health NHS Trust, which serves one of the largest and most diverse patient populations in the country, has become the first healthcare provider in the NHS to implement Anonymise and Export from medical imaging IT company Sectra. As part of wider activity, it means that researchers will be empowered to shed new light on diseases, tailor treatments, and potentially inform the next generation of healthcare AI.
Anonymise and Export has been implemented within the trust’s existing Sectra enterprise imaging solution, a system widely used by NHS diagnosticians to analyse patient scans. The cutting-edge addition will allow for the seamless export of medical images to a secure data environment, with patient identifiers automatically removed. This removes a previously manually intensive process, releasing time for busy NHS teams, whilst addressing crucial privacy safeguards, and dramatically expanding research possibilities.
The de-identified imaging data will be integrated into the new Barts Health Data Platform (BHDP), which was formally launched in April 2025. The platform brings together different types of health information — such as scans, health records, and lab results — into one secure system that researchers can apply to use.
Steven Newhouse, deputy chief information officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “We are now able to provide researchers and clinicians with access to health and imaging data at a scale we’ve not offered before. With robust safeguards in place, this development supports more efficient, secure research and marks meaningful progress in advancing medical innovation and understanding of disease.”
Deployed with the support of Sectra and the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Sectra Anonymise and Export opens new avenues for medical research, paving the way for more comprehensive and insightful studies.
Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre is delighted to have enabled this groundbreaking advancement in access to medical imaging for research. This system represents a pivotal moment in our field — a true game-changer that unlocks the potential of big data while steadfastly protecting patient privacy. This is an exhilarating time of transformation, and I am proud to be part of this innovative journey.”
Sarah Jensen, chief information officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, added: “The diversity and sheer volume of data being integrated means a significant leap forward in our healthcare data research capabilities. NHS professionals are under pressure as they work to deliver the best possible care for patients. Academics and researchers in continual pursuit of medical advancements, can play a key role delivering innovations urgently needed.
“Now, we can securely and safely provide the data they need on a scale not previously possible, whilst safeguarding confidentiality, and without our busy NHS teams being asked to spend time manually removing identifiable information. The possibilities are immense.”
The technological deployment sets the stage for sophisticated AI-powered analysis of medical images. By leveraging advanced pattern recognition algorithms, that are available within the Azure Cloud that hosts the BHDP, researchers will be able to uncover hidden insights and draw more nuanced conclusions from the extensive dataset.
Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “Healthcare professionals at Barts Health have been at the forefront of innovation with imaging technology for many years – using our platform to diagnose and inform care for a great many patients across East London. This latest initiative takes that innovation to another level, securely and safely harnessing imaging data in ways that could radically change how care is delivered. I look forward to seeing the impact emerge for healthcare and patients alike.”
United Kingdom’s Carrier Strike Group now operating across the Indo-Pacific, following Mediterranean exercises and Red Sea transit
Key defence partnerships strengthened through naval exercises with India, Australia, US and other partners
Port visits to Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and Republic of Korea set to boost UK trade and defence cooperation in line with the Government’s Plan for Change
UK security and growth has received a boost as the UK-led international Carrier Strike Group (CSG25) began operations in the Indo-Pacific.
Led by the aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, CSG25 has undertaken a joint exercise with the Indian Navy, deepening the UK’s defence relationship with a key strategic partner ahead of a port visit to India later this year.
The deployment, known as Operation Highmast, includes ships from Canada, Norway and Spain, and has now been joined by a New Zealand Frigate, HMNZS Te Kaha, after entering the Indian Ocean, having passed through the Red Sea.
HMS Prince of Wales off the coast of India whilst on Op Highmast
The task group, which left the UK in April, previously completed exercises in the Mediterranean.
Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard said:
“I am delighted that our Carrier Strike Group and 4,000 Service Personnel, are now operating in the Indo-Pacific region. Working with our Allies and partners, to keep Britain secure at home and strong abroad.
“This isn’t just about hard power; the upcoming exercises and port visits are about building influence and boosting trade opportunities both for defence and other sectors of our economy which will deliver British jobs and growth, and delivers on the Government’s Plan for Change.”
Commodore James Blackmore, Commander CSG said:
“The deployment sends a powerful message that the UK and its allies are committed to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. It’s a privilege to lead our sailors, marines, soldiers and aircrew as we demonstrate warfighting capability.”
Over the next few months, CSG25 will join British Army and Royal Air Force units to participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, the Australian-led multinational exercise involving US and many other regional partners. This major exercise builds towards full operational capability of the UK’s carrier strike capability.
With two F-35B squadrons embarked, the RAF and Royal Navy are set to redefine the landscape of naval air power, in a move to warfighting readiness in support of NATO, while reinforcing Britain’s commitment to security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Port visits to Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and the Republic of Korea will showcase British defence capabilities through trade demonstrations and fairs, directly supporting the Government’s Plan for Change through economic growth. A port visit to Darwin, Australia, provides an opportunity to further develop the AUKUS partnership between Australia, the UK and the United States.
The Carrier Strike Group will also host the prestigious Pacific Future Forum in Japan, bringing together defence, security and technology leaders from across the region to discuss shared challenges.
The deployment follows the Prime Minister’s historic commitment to increase defence spending to 2.6% of GDP, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to keep the UK secure at home and strong abroad.
Keeping the country safe is the Government’s first priority and is the foundation of its Plan for Change. The strength, capability and global reach of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force, demonstrated through Operation Highmast, is critical to the security and stability of the UK, supporting the delivery of the Government’s five missions.
The cyberattack against Marks & Spencer, which caused damages beyond £300 million and operational disruptions until July, serves as a ‘red alert’ for all public and private organisations. The attack revealed fundamental weaknesses in trust levels and operational stability alongside compromised data protection. The National Crime Agency’s investigation into Scattered Spider shows that even major entities like Harrods and Co-op are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Claire Agutter
The domain of cybersecurity extends beyond technical challenges managed solely by IT departments. Organisations need to treat cybersecurity as a boardroom priority and leadership challenge while recognising its role as a necessity for public trust. Modern digital ecosystems which support critical sectors such as healthcare and government face comprehensive risks from a single cybersecurity breach.
From Data Theft to Operational Paralysis
Cyber threats have evolved. Modern cyber attacks have advanced from merely stealing data to causing widespread business disruption by locking systems and halting services. The M&S data breach led to extensive disruptions that affected logistics operations, daily customer communications, and business functions.
Business disruption for companies prioritising efficiency and trust results in consequences beyond immediate financial setbacks. The enduring damage to stakeholder trust, public image, and service operations can create devastating effects.
Resilience Is the New Compliance
In response, organisations must shift their mindset. Compliance alone is no longer sufficient. Organisations can establish foundational resilience through frameworks and regulations but need integrated actions across strategy, operations, and cultural alignment to achieve true resilience.
Cybersecurity must become an inherent part of an organisation’s foundational structure rather than a separate addition. Every member, from top executives down to frontline personnel, has a responsibility in defence.
Organisations can develop operational resilience by concentrating their efforts on four essential domains.
1. Leadership, Culture, and Training
Senior leadership should own cybersecurity as a strategic priority and maintain open communication about it throughout the whole organisation. All staff require consistent, practical training to recognise threats and react correctly. Organisations need an environment where transparency and responsibility in cyber risk management become foundational.
2. Third-Party Oversight
Both public organisations and private enterprises depend significantly on external vendors and partners as well as contractors for their operations. Organisations face substantial security risks through third-party relationships unless they maintain proper oversight. Organisations must now treat due diligence, security assessments, and clear contractual requirements as essential building blocks.
3. Robust Response Planning
The effectiveness of handling a cyber incident depends entirely on the rapidness and transparency of the response process. Organisations need to test response plans through realistic simulations, including clearly defined roles, communication strategies, and established escalation procedures. Stakeholders’ trust will only be maintained after a breach through complete public transparency.
4. Smart Investment in Technology
Technology is crucial for resilience building through advanced threat detection and automated response tools. The implementation of technology needs to be strategic and should match the organisation’s particular risk profile and operational requirements. Protection requires more than tools alone because processes and culture are essential elements for effective security measures.
Learning from Crisis
An organisation’s cybersecurity posture directly influences its service reliability and public trust in today’s environment. In public service delivery and commercial operations, consumers demand security in their data and interactions. Organisations now view such failures as shortcomings in leadership and governance rather than mere technical issues.
The M&S attack is more than a headline event because it is an example of organisational failure when resilience measures prove inadequate. This situation requires organisations to assess their cybersecurity measures and integrate protection as a fundamental part of their operational health while refining their strategies.
Modern operational strategies need to prioritise security alongside agility and transparency. Protective measures without innovative approaches cause stagnation, while innovation without adequate protection presents a significant risk. Achieving the correct balance between different elements represents an essential requirement rather than just a wise decision.
Claire Agutter established Scopism and published the SIAM Foundation and Professional Body of Knowledge while being acknowledged as an expert in service management and operational resilience. www.scopism.com
Kymeta achieves multi-band connectivity with four concurrent beams in Ku- and Ka-band frequencies with a single antenna aperture
Leap in connectivity technology unlocks the future of AI in defense, autonomy and edge computing
Opens the door to automatic and seamless satellite roaming synonymous with cellular networks
In a world-first, Kymeta, the company reimagining satellite connectivity, has recently announced a major technological leap: simultaneously operating across both Ku and Ka satellite bands in a single, compact antenna – laying the technical groundwork to enable seamless connectivity across satellite networks.
This breakthrough marks a significant milestone for the satellite communications industry, ending a legacy of siloed satcom limitations. Kymeta has now advanced the ability to interoperate across satellite networks in different bands and different orbits, in a move to make satellite as seamless and ubiquitous as cellular.
Bruno Fromont, Intelsat CTO said: “Transformative technology milestones like this spark a catalytic shift across an entire landscape. Kymeta’s ability to unify Ku- and Ka- band connections through a single mobile antenna is a foundational leap toward combined satellite networks, making communication as seamless and automatic as the cellular networks we use every day. This success is changing the game.”
The ability to connect to both Ku- and Ka-band beams offers immediate and significant benefits – unlocking higher bandwidth, faster data rates, and more bits per second (bps). This also enables continuous connectivity, a vital component toward making advanced AI at the edge a reality. The breakthrough will now allow manufacturers to build the advanced tech of the future where this is a requirement.
This achievement meets the demands of global militaries. The US Space Force vision whitepaper in 2020 outlined the requirement to support multi-bands, orbits, waveforms and a “network of networks to support responsive and agile operations”. Along with traditional C2 (command and control) functions, autonomous applications such as unmanned surface and aerial vehicles (USV, UAV and UGVs) require strong, reliable connectivity to operate and be competitive on the battlefield. This serves as a network hub and backhaul for downstream communication using MANET, mesh and cellular networks that will enable autonomous system operations at scale.
Ian Canning, president and CEO of Eutelsat America Corp + OneWeb Technologies (EACOWT) comments: “The U.S. DOD and defense forces around the globe require increasingly sophisticated, flexible and secure communications, which includes the need for high-performance, multi-band, multi-orbit connectivity from a single antenna. Kymeta’s ESA platform, reflecting their continued investment in innovation, is truly disruptive, and brings multi-orbit and multi-band capabilities into the modern era. I look forward to collaborating with Kymeta to develop world class satellite communication products that will open the door to the resilient communications required in the modern battlefield.”
Relying on a single network connection is insufficient to meet the complex and evolving needs of modern global forces, making multi-band beam switching a strategic necessity. This capability allows for simultaneous and redundant communication links, which are critical for maintaining operational integrity in contested or jamming-prone environments while on the move.
General (ret) Paul J Kern, former Commanding General, Army Materiel Command, currently Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group comments: “Kymeta’s breakthrough in seamless switching between Ku and Ka satellite bands delivers the kind of resilient, always-on communications that advanced military platforms and autonomous systems demand. This is a major step forward in preparing and equipping our forces for the modern battlefield. This capability would have made an enormous difference to my operations in the desert of Iraq.”
The technology was successfully demonstrated and validated at Kymeta on April 22, 2025. This achievement was made possible by Kymeta’s unique metamaterials antenna surface.
Until this point, interoperability in the Ku and Ka bands has been possible only with Electronic Steered Antennas (ESA) using multiple physically separate antennas, which proves problematic due to the size and power usage required to operate. This technological disruption by Kymeta allows connectivity in both bands in one single antenna, giving space efficiency, low power consumption, and low cost (SWaP-C).
Kymeta Chief Scientist, Ryan Stevenson, says: “At Kymeta we’ve never followed convention. What began as novel metamaterials technology is now a proven engineering foundation – first brought to market in 2017, and now central to this groundbreaking achievement. We’ve turned breakthrough physics into a powerful, trusted toolkit. Using this toolkit we have now addressed the most challenging requirement in satellite communications. We have cracked the code on seamless multi-orbit, multi-band connectivity – and have set the standard for next-generation satellite communications.”
How it works
The physical area of Kymeta’s multi-band antenna aperture consisting of four, interleaved sub-arrays – Ku transmit, Ku receive, Ka transmit and Ka receive – allows for simultaneous and independently controlled Ku and Ka full duplex beams from its metamaterials surface. Structuring the antenna in this way, and pairing it with advanced AI algorithms for intelligent routing, enables frequency reuse and alleviates spectrum contention via Kymeta’s narrower receive and transmit beams. These beams are more focused and operate at higher directivity, promoting spectrum efficiency and interference mitigation, such as GEO / LEO beam straying, jamming and adverse weather like rain fade and atmospheric losses.
Further Innovation / Funding
With the success of this innovative advancement, fueled by the company’s VC support and Silicon Valley spirit, Kymeta looks towards its next phase of growth and will be working with strategic investment partners, as well as key government programs, who share the company’s vision to scale this universal transformation.
The NHS is amid a long-anticipated workforce crisis, and few areas are feeling the strain more acutely than general practice. A shortfall of over 4,200 GPs in England is just the start. Despite ministerial pledges and long-term workforce plans, the supply of newly qualified doctors fails to meet demand. Meanwhile, medical schools face rising dropout rates, with 43% of students now considering pausing or abandoning their studies due to financial hardship and burnout (BMA, 2024).
These statistics aren’t just figures in a government report; they represent thousands of students like me. Young people who entered medical school full of purpose only encountered a system that too often depleted rather than supported them.
I began my studies at a respected UK institution on the south coast. On paper, I was on the ideal path; strong academic credentials, a sound support system, and a clear goal of serving as a GP within the NHS. But within months, the cracks began to show. The pressure was relentless. And the cost, both financial and emotional, was overwhelming.
A Different Pathway
Faced with the prospect of abandoning my dream, I started looking for alternatives. That’s when I came across New Anglia University (NAU), a new but fully accredited medical school in Anguilla, a small Caribbean island. I was sceptical. But I was also curious. Could it really be possible to study medicine abroad, at a lower cost, with a better student experience, and still return to practise in the UK? The answer was yes.
NAU’s programme is built for the 21st-century student. With a curriculum designed by clinicians and educators from the UK, US, and Canada, the course is intensive, tech-enabled, and globally recognised. Students complete 20 months of pre-clinical training on campus, followed by clinical rotations in partner hospitals, including in the UK.
Most importantly, NAU’s model is built with student wellbeing in mind. With small class sizes, close mentoring, and an environment that promotes both academic rigour and personal balance, the difference is night and day from what I experienced back home.
Today, my lectures are held in purpose-built labs overlooking the ocean. Our professors know us by name. We are taught not only how to pass exams but also how to care for patients and for ourselves.
A Global Model with Local Relevance
At first glance, this may seem a world away from the NHS. But it’s not. The programme is accredited by international bodies, listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, and recognised by both the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and FAIMER. NAU is not an offshore shortcut; it’s a legitimate alternative that complements, rather than competes with, UK medical education.
For government and public sector leaders grappling with GP shortages and overstretched training capacity, the implications are clear: we must broaden our definition of medical education pathways.
NAU graduates can return to the UK for postgraduate training, just like their UK-educated peers. With rigorous preparation, clinical placements aligned to UK standards, and growing partnerships with NHS Trusts, these students are part of a global solution to a local problem.
Cost, Capacity, and Common Sense
The numbers matter. A UK medical degree typically costs up to £12,000 per year in tuition alone, often resulting in totals of around £200,000, including accommodation and living expenses over 8-14 years. NAU, in comparison, offers a faster, four-year MD programme at a fraction of the cost. With student debt soaring and living costs increasing, this is a lifeline for many aspiring medics.
And it’s not just about saving money; it’s about avoiding loss. Every student who drops out of a UK programme is a missed opportunity in the NHS pipeline. Alternative models like NAU offer a pressure valve, one that could be formally integrated into workforce planning.
Imagine if students rejected by UK universities were directed towards accredited international options rather than left behind. Imagine if we saw global education not as a threat to standards but as a partner in national capacity-building.
Meeting Gen Z Where They Are
Generation Z is not afraid to question traditional routes. They value purpose, flexibility, mental health, and value for money. The traditional university model, which is long, expensive, and high-pressure, doesn’t always align with their expectations.
Institutions like NAU are listening. They provide high-quality medical education without compromising on wellbeing or accessibility. For students like me, it’s not about escaping the UK, it’s about finding an environment that supports our growth into competent, compassionate doctors.
A Future Worth Considering
There are lessons here for government leaders, NHS planners, and education policymakers.
First, we must acknowledge that the traditional medical education pathway is financially and mentally unsustainable for many students.
Second, we need to expand our understanding of legitimate routes to NHS employment, including those that start abroad.
Third, we must invest in supporting students throughout their training, wherever they are, because the end goal is the same: a resilient, well-staffed, and compassionate NHS.
Alternative models like NAU will not replace the UK system. But they can relieve pressure, reduce costs, and offer viable options to students who might otherwise walk away.
I’m one of those students who stayed on the path, just not the one I thought I’d be on. And in doing so, I’ve found renewed purpose, greater wellbeing, and a more straightforward route to NHS service.
For the future of British healthcare, that’s a conversation worth having.
Tamara is a British medical student currently studying at New Anglia University, Anguilla. She plans to return to the UK for clinical placements and postgraduate training within the NHS. For more information, visit www.newanglia.com
Richard LaTulip, a Field Chief Information Security Officer at Recorded Future.
Richard LaTulip
The UK’s proposed Cyber Security and Resilience Bill represents a significant shift in how the nation approaches ransomware and wider cyber threats, with lasting implications for the public sector. As the government aims to tighten rules around ransomware reporting and payments, organisations are set to face stricter expectations for transparency, incident response, and cyber resilience.
Under the proposed legislation, all public sector and critical national infrastructure bodies could be banned from paying ransomware demands. It would also require organisations to report a ransomware attack within 72 hours, sharing details about the ransomware demand, whether the attackers are identifiable, and resilience capabilities.
The public sector ransomware payment ban is designed to turn essential public services into unattractive targets for cybercrime. Public sector suppliers are also being urged to take action, with NHS England asking suppliers to help tackle the “endemic” threat of ransomware attacks, and a voluntary public charter due to launch later this year.
These changes are positive steps towards improving cyber hygiene, but they cannot replace the need for immediate action. Waiting for the UK to take action is not an option, as cyberattacks are already disrupting public services and pose a mounting threat
A key enabler of ransomware attacks is phishing, especially highly targeted ‘spearphishing’ campaigns that trick employees into handing over access credentials. Criminal groups, like the one behind the widely reported Medusa ransomware, use phishing to gain a foothold in networks, and phishing attempts are often the start of a much more damaging ransomware event. However, public sector organisations can bolster their defences through sophisticated threat intelligence.
Rise in phishing
Relentless risks of cyberattacks have seen organisations make cybersecurity a strategic priority. Technology and software will be deployed to enhance security and protect operations against malicious activity. A by-product of this positive intent is that cyber threats adapt. Rather than spending time and resource trying to crack robustly protected networks, criminals prioritise the exploitation of individuals to obtain genuine user credentials. This form of attack is seen as a more effective route for getting past extensive authentication checks, with a belief amongst attackers that employees are the weakest link in a strong chain of security defences.
The phishing threat landscape is evolving and increasingly becoming ‘sprearphishing’, where attacks are much more targeted and seem even more plausible. Extremely personalised attacks will be directed at specific individuals to deceive them into sharing trusted credentials and confidential information.
Sprearphishing will be carried out via channels such as email, SMS and other messaging platforms, and phone calls. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being exploited by criminals to make these personalised attacks scalable and effective.
AI-powered phishing
Generative AI is often used by threat actors to quickly generate thousands of unique, native language lures. Scam emails seem credible, because the language used appears authentic and less suspicious. For example, email copy may deliberately include typical spelling and grammatical errors in a message, and colloquial terms, so that it appears to originate from a plausible, human source.
It’s also possible for AI to harvest and analyse data about the target of the attack, as well as the supposed party that’s requesting information. This is where spearphishing becomes very personalised. An email received from a supposed senior colleague seems genuine, because it’s able to impersonate a trusted source and contains what appears to be real and relevant references.
Criminals are also using the voice generating and changing capabilities of generative AI to impersonate support services such as an IT helpdesk. The AI contacts an employee and tricks them into divulging confidential and sensitive information. It’s an evolution of a social engineering scam, which takes advantage of an employee’s likely frustration with an IT problem and their willingness to quickly fix problems. The AI voice sounds plausible and builds trust.
A key step for preventing spearphishing attacks is to build awareness amongst employees – they need to know what types of risk they are facing, if they are to prove an effective line of defence. Running simulated attacks can help employees to understand the capabilities of AI and show how it is being used by criminals. It also important to strengthen resilience through faster threat identification and sustained intelligence. Monitoring threat actors and spearphishing campaigns can enable organisations to stay ahead of potential attacks.
Impersonated brands
Phishing techniques are also evolving to spoof widely trusted and well-known brands. Genuine organisations like Microsoft and DocuSign provide products and services used regularly throughout the public sector. Employees interact with these types of platforms on an almost daily basis and, in most cases, won’t think twice about how they use them. Criminals know this and prey on it.
Attackers create sophisticated impersonations of trusted platforms, which seem realistic and genuine. Users are misled by these lookalikes, and what is typically regarded as a safe website to share passwords and credentials, becomes a data-capture exercise for criminals. These types of attacks are evolving with more sophisticated domain impersonations, including lookalike domains and homoglyph attacks that evade traditional email filters.
The threat of phishing is growing and evolving, and it will continue to do so as organisations strengthen their defences against ransomware. With the proposed Cyber Security and Resilience Bill introducing a tougher stance on ransomware payments and incident reporting, the public sector is under increasing pressure to act now.
Legislation alone will not build resilience. Phishing remains one of the most common and effective ways for ransomware actors to gain initial access. To protect essential services, public sector organisations need to prioritise effective threat intelligence.
Building knowledge of the threat landscape can help to prioritise which phishing attacks pose the most realistic risks of a breach and avoid defences becoming overwhelmed. Informed decisions can be made and proactive steps taken to drive preventative action, helping organisations to stay ahead of potential breaches. Threat intelligence can provide valuable insights that reduce vulnerabilities and lessen the effectiveness of phishing, even when it’s extremely personalised.
As inflation, interest rates and the cost of living continue to test the resilience of UK households, the public sector faces a dual imperative: safeguarding its own financial stability while ensuring that the most vulnerable communities aren’t left behind.
Although the annual inflation rate has eased from its peak – hitting 2.6% in April, which is less than expected and the lowest it has been since 2021 – it still remains stubbornly above the Bank of England’s 2% target and households continue to feel the strain of cumulative economic shocks.
Latest figures report that 20.3 million people are now living in financially vulnerable circumstances across the UK, up by 16% from 17.5 million in 2022. While a number of factors are to blame, persistently high energy costs, rent hikes and soaring food prices are three of the core issues. A growing crisis in public sector rental arrears
This financial tension is particularly evident in the social housing sector, where data shows a sharp and sustained increase in rental arrears.
Our recent Rental Arrears Index revealed a sharp and sustained increase in the number of council-owned housing units falling into arrears. As of March 2024, the average local authority reported more than 4,400 social housing units in rental arrears, up significantly from 3,700 in 2019.
This means that, on average, 41% of council-owned units are now behind on rent – compared to just 35% five years ago. At the same time, the average value of rental arrears per council has surged from £1.8 million to more than £3.1 million.
These numbers are not only a barometer of the cost-of-living crisis and its impact on tenants, but a clear signal that the existing rent collection systems used by local authorities are struggling to keep pace with what is now required of them.
Flexibility as a necessity, not a luxury
An economically turbulent few years have exposed the fragility of many household budgets, while also demonstrating how responsive, compassionate policies – such as mortgage holidays and deferred utility bills – can provide vital and much needed relief during times of financial need.
Flexibility is no longer a hopeful request – it’s a baseline expectation. In the private rental sector, three quarters of landlords are supporting tenants with the rise of cost of living, and the public sector must meet this evolving standard.
After all, allowing residents to manage payments in a way that reflects their own unique circumstances reduces the chance of them falling behind on rental payments, improves cash flow and helps prevent more severe outcomes like homelessness or spiralling debt. To deliver this, more flexible digital tools such as managed planned payments, Open Banking, Direct Debit schedules and automated notifications are key for empowering staff to offer informed, empathetic and adaptable solutions. Digital transformation with inclusion at its core
These tools enable real-time visibility, align payment dates with income cycles, and allow quick adjustments when circumstances change. Just as important, however, is how these processes are communicated to tenants.
A personalised, empathetic approach encourages engagement, and by reframing payment as a shared responsibility, local authorities can build trust and cooperation, rather than driving avoidance and escalation.
The UK is now well on the path to becoming a cashless society, but modernising payments is not just a matter of efficiency – it is a matter of access, dignity and fairness. Digital transformation must not come at the cost of social inclusion.
Around 8.5 million people in the UK still lack the basic digital skills required to confidently navigate online services. This includes some of the most financially vulnerable groups – older people, those on low incomes, or residents in rural areas with poor connectivity – who are most in need of public support.
This is why a true transformation strategy must be inclusive by design. No one should be forced into a digital channel they are not equipped to use.
The time to act is now
For too long, the public sector has grappled with outdated infrastructure and fragmented systems. Every day, residents fall further behind on their rent payments because they can’t navigate rigid systems that don’t meet them where they are.
Secure, simple and adaptive payment solutions can empower residents to stay on top of their obligations, rather than feeling overwhelmed by them. They can also free up public sector staff from time-intensive manual processes, enabling them to focus on the human work of service and support.
The public sector doesn’t just have an opportunity to lead. It has a duty to. By embedding agility, compassion and innovation into the way payments are collected, a source of friction can be transformed into a channel for trust, inclusion and stability.
There’s not a council in the country today that’s free from significant financial stress. The LGA says that one in 10 councils has already discussed receiving emergency support from the government. Many more are struggling to secure sufficient financial resources to meet their budgetary obligations, or even to deliver the basic essential services. Yet still local authorities and other social landlords are being asked to spearhead regional economic growth, develop new towns, and pay for fire safety, low carbon and healthy home retrofits too.
Clive Feeney
In many ways, today’s current economic situation is very similar to the post-war years – with the need for significant reconstruction of our housing and infrastructure assets against the backdrop of slow economic growth and challenging decisions regarding spending priorities.
From that history, there are lessons we can learn. Because it was just 20 years after the war that 13 London authorities, from Richmond upon Thames and Harrow in the west to the Corporation of London in the east, came together for the first time to pool resources and to try a new approach to finding the quality building and construction services they needed to revitalise their boroughs.
Their meeting notes show they talked about creating common social and technical standards. Of coordinating industrialised and standards-based build programmes. And of serial contracts for the bulk purchase of components. Contracts that would help create much-needed economies of scale and make these programmes affordable.
This was the creation of London Housing Consortium, now part of the LHC Procurement Group, and almost 60 years since their first meeting, we are still helping local authorities and social landlords to achieve their needs.
Of course, today’s public sector procurement frameworks are much more sophisticated in their ambitions. The introduction of Gold Standard verification for frameworks in the last few years, for example, along with brand new legislation in the Procurement Act and related policy in other parts of the UK, now puts issues like social value and sustainability front and centre.
But let’s not lose sight of the fundamental financial reasons why cooperation and collaboration via framework providers makes so much sense. Heaven knows, the economic drivers are as vital today as they were at the beginning.
Frameworks are created to help buyers – usually called ‘contracting authorities’ or clients – procure goods and services from a list of pre-approved suppliers, with agreed terms and conditions and legal protections. A framework provider, like LHCPG, helps with the process.
For all public sector bodies, frameworks can be one of the most efficient and effective ways to save both time and money across a wide range of construction and maintenance projects.
In our experience, there are five key areas in which frameworks help public sector bodies to save money:
Reducing technical and administration costs, eliminating the need for teams of people (including expensive lawyers and consultants) to repeat tender processes and deal with the day-to-day assessments, technical checks, contracts and paperwork.
Making the procurement process more streamlined and simplified, as so much of the process is standardised, repeatable at scale and optimised for maximum efficiency. This can also lead to quicker project completion which, in the case of retrofit and maintenance work in particular, can have a fast financial payback to a registered social landlord.
Improving value for money, through pre-negotiated terms and conditions, often including discounts, volume rebates or added value services to support local communities. Not-for-profit framework providers like LHCPG also ensure any surplus made during the year is reinvested in the local area. Ours is offered back to our members in the form of a rebate that can be spent on local, community projects that deliver genuine social value – a key driver for today’s socially focussed public sector and a recommendation in the new Procurement Act.
Encouraging collaboration between clients and establishing centralised buying, which delivers those economies of scale I was referring to earlier. Also, collaboration between clients and suppliers so that long-term relationships can be built and best practice agreed, troubleshooting any problems quickly and ensuring a successful project for all.
Providing more efficient access to local SME suppliers who will offer clients a careful balance of the best service, the highest quality work to recognised industry standards, and the most competitive price.
Why make procurement difficult? With construction projects, many public sector bodies may lack the technical knowledge or simply the resources to undertake the full-blown procurement process alone, which is why they often turn to framework providers for support. So, in the face of continued economic challenges, I urge every local authority chief executive and housing team to look afresh at how LHCPG’s Gold Standard-verified frameworks can help streamline processes, minimise paperwork, and leverage collective buying power to secure better prices. By doing so, we can achieve substantial cost savings and deliver significant social value to our communities.
By: Matt Croucher, Chief Commercial Officer at electric vehicle (EV) charge point operator (CPO), Believ, discusses how transport planning professionals can play their part in driving forward EV charging infrastructure rollout, and what the next few years will bring.
Matt Croucher
Tell us a bit about your career, and what brought you to EV charging?
For almost two decades, I worked as transport planning consultant specialising in sustainable transport. I was fortunate to be involved in a broad range of projects, from designing bus stations, to setting up car clubs and monitoring air quality for schools.
I became involved in planning EV charging infrastructure in the 2000s, when the renewable energy industry was growing rapidly, but EVs were still in their infancy. Realising we were soon going to be able to power cars and other vehicles with clean renewable energy, with all the benefits that brings, made it clear to me that electrification was going to be key to the future of any clean transport policy.
Reducing our dependency on private vehicles, and helping the general public to drive less, is a crucial part of sustainable transport planning. Wherever possible, I would always advocate the sustainable travel hierarchy, where walking, cycling and public transport are given priority over driving. However, car usage still makes up 60% of all UK trips, and 78%* of distance travelled, and realistically will always hold a significant share of our journeys nationally, even in the most optimistic future scenarios. The electrification of transport is therefore essential to reducing CO2 emissions by moving away from fossil fuels.
But it wasn’t until I managed an EV project on behalf of Transport for London, and later became the Zero Emission lead for WSP, that EV charging became my career priority. One of my core tasks was to help local authorities, transport agencies or landowners in developing their EV strategies, and in particular, to forecast future infrastructure requirements. It was in this last role that I led the development of a forecasting tool to predict the UK’s charge point infrastructure need and became increasingly specialised in this area.
How has your planning experience influenced your EV charging infrastructure career?
It greatly influenced my choice of employer. For me, Believ stood out because it is hardware agnostic, giving it the flexibility to install any speed of charge point; that appealed to the transport planner in me. It meant we could offer a solution based on the individual needs of the landowner, the site and its average driver dwell times. Getting this right is essential to ensuring charging infrastructure serves existing EV drivers and attracts others to make the transition.
I was also attracted to Believ’s industry-leading backing and the unique relationship it has with its delivery partner, Virgin Media O2. This was important to me because with contracts typically lasting up to 20 years, I knew our partners need confidence that their partners can be relied upon in the long term.
I continue to draw on the transport planning fundamentals in my role as Chief Commercial Officer at Believ, including my focus on understanding travel behaviours, modelling demand and planning transport infrastructure investments. Taking a data-led approach to help us install future-proofed infrastructure.
How long have you been at Believ and what have been your highlights?
I joined Believ in 2022 and was promoted to Chief Commercial Officer in 2024. The new role was designed to strengthen the leadership of Believ’s rapidly growing number of people and teams and ensure we are all aligned to the same commercial goals.
Last year was incredibly rewarding as we saw Believ’s personnel head count and socket numbers double in size, and our private sector team break into new markets. Another major highlight was the successful negotiation of the joint deal with the London boroughs of Redbridge and Newham Councils and Uber to fund and install more than 1,000 charge points across East London. Utilisation has been very high, and it is a great example of private and public industries working together to serve a public need and accelerate the EV charging rollout.
What do the next five years look like for the EV charging industry?
After a period of wide-spread delays in the public sector’s EV charging rollouts, LEVI funding has now been allocated and tenders are out, and we will see around 100,000 charge points commissioned this year. Putting this into context, at the end of April 2025 the UK had 79,654 public chargers installed which provided 114,700 sockets**, so the next couple of years should see a steep acceleration in infrastructure deployment.
This year is proving to be a very significant year for the charge point industry, with CPOs under pressure to deliver on what they promise, and the importance of financial backing, delivery capacity and experience coming to the fore. Drivers will see a very tangible increase in charge point infrastructure visibility – which will be incredibly positive in persuading them to make the switch.
If you had two wishes that would help accelerate the rollout of EV charging, what would they be?
Continued funding by Government to support recruiting local authority EV personnel, not only the officers directly responsible for the EV infrastructure itself, but also across procurement and legal departments – where at present you often see delays and back logs of up to 12 months.
Improved data sharing by DNOs (distribution network operators) to better enable planning and site design. Whilst things are improving, large areas of the network still lack good quality digitised mapping. We can’t build infrastructure without a connection to the power grid, and you see instances where a site is chosen, commercials are agreed and then there is a wait of up to two years for a connection.
Lastly, what EV do you drive? And how do you find the public charging experience?
I have a Cupra Born, which I love. I’ve had an EV for six years now and could never imagine going back; for me it provides a superior driving experience in every way.
The charging experience is sadly still mixed. Most of the time things work and are straight forward, but even if it is only one occasion in ten that there is a hiccup, it can still be very inconvenient and frustrating. While there is still a way to go to achieve country-wide convenience, there are lots of passionate and committed professionals working on it, and I have every confidence that in the not-too-distant future, we will have a first-class charging network. You could say, I believ.
Millions more Brits arriving in the Algarve are set to benefit from eGates ahead of the summer holidays. The change was confirmed by the Portuguese authorities.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Minister for EU Relations, told GPSJ:
“This is great news for sun-seeking Brits heading on holiday to the Algarve this summer. And that is on top of the wider deal we secured which is good for jobs, good for bills and good for borders.”
Millions of passengers from the UK travelled through Faro Airport last year.
The roll out in Faro follows close working with airport authorities in recent weeks. And the Government hopes more countries will follow suit, as it continues to push for EU member states to open the use of eGates at airports.
At the UK-EU Summit last month, the UK and EU made clear that there were no legal barriers to even more EU countries allowing British nationals to use e-gates at airports.
The deal with the EU, agreed on 19 May, delivers on the Government’s core mission to grow the economy, back British jobs and put more money in people’s pockets, and is expected to bring £9 billion to the UK economy by 2030.
And alongside providing further legal clarity to members states on UK access to eGates, the deal will slash red tape for business, protect UK steel from EU rules and tariffs and bring greater control to our borders, with increased data sharing to catch dangerous criminals quicker.
We all want travel to be secure, safe, and easy. But as traveler numbers surge to record highs and governments aim to unlock tourism’s full economic power, border agencies face a critical challenge: how do you handle rising demand without compromising security?
This week, European and global leaders in border security, technology, and policy meet in Tallinn, Estonia, to tackle exactly that.
Andy Smith
Europe’s in-tray is full. From large-scale migration to evolving security threats, the continent’s unique geographic and cultural diversity demands solutions that balance security with the need to keep legitimate trade and travel flowing.
Demand is booming, are borders keeping up?
Travel and tourism are the lifeblood of European prosperity. And they’re only growing. Last year, passenger numbers across Europe soared nearly 10%, with capacity up by more than 9%, according to IATA.
In response, European airports are investing billions to expand and modernize. Governments, too, are stepping in to back infrastructure improvements. But shiny new terminals alone won’t deliver the benefits, not unless border systems evolve alongside them.
From static to smart: why border modernization matters
Border security can’t lag behind. It needs to embrace the same tech-driven advancements shaping traveler expectations and responding to today’s fast-moving threats.
Right now, many passengers face long queues and repeated document checks, with IATA reporting over 70% encounter delays. That’s frustrating for travelers and a strain on agency resources, especially when most people pose no risk.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Digitalized, interoperable, and dynamic borders can transform the experience, letting governments adapt policies and procedures in real time, strengthen security, and boost their country’s appeal as a destination for trade, tourism, and investment.
Integration is the key
Effective border management is never just one agency’s job. It brings together immigration, customs, public health, intelligence, and law enforcement. Siloed systems create gaps and inefficiencies; integrated systems, on the other hand, offer a unified, real-time view of travelers and goods, allowing faster, smarter decisions and keeping resources focused where they matter most.
Creating a better border experience
By using secure digital identities and pre-clearing travelers before they even arrive, border agencies can reduce congestion and speed up processing. And because the border experience shapes a visitor’s first and last impression, improving it also strengthens a country’s global image.
Start small, scale big
The path forward doesn’t require sweeping overnight change. In fact, the most successful transformations often start small, with modular, collaborative approaches.
Digital travel credentials (DTCs) are a prime example. Worldwide, demand for faster, contactless processes is skyrocketing, with over 60% of passengers saying they’d pay for a DTC. In Aruba, a DTC pilot cut border processing time to just eight seconds, while improving data accuracy and compliance.
Immediate wins, long-term gains
Governments can make meaningful progress by tackling immediate pain points now while laying the groundwork for broader transformation. It’s about asking: what can we improve today with minimal disruption, and how does that fit into the bigger vision of a fully digital, integrated, and secure border?
Thoughtful, incremental action builds momentum for larger change.
Building the borders of the future
Borders will always be about managing risk. But by rethinking how people, goods, and information move across them, European governments can create systems that are not just more secure, but also more efficient, adaptable, and aligned with the needs of a fast-changing world. Crucially, these systems can balance the demands of security with the economic benefits of growing travel and tourism.
Andy Smith is Director for Industry & Innovation at SITA, the global air transport industry-owned IT-tech organization that works with over 75 governments— including every G20 nation — to modernize airport and border operations.
The International Border Management and Technologies Association (IBMATA), a not-for-profit international NGO committed to the safe and secure movement of people and goods across international borders, holds its Border Management & Technologies Summit Europe 2025 in Tallinn from 4-6 June.
FourNet’s IntellAIgent uses Agentic AI to transform front and back-office customer service operations in seconds, with personalised, complex, context-aware automations
Digital transformation and customer experience specialists, FourNet, today announced the launch of FourNet IntellAIgent, an Agentic AI platform, designed to enable businesses to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate AI-driven transformation.
FourNet IntellAIgent is an innovative, artificial intelligence-powered, automation platform which allows organisations to create their own intelligent digital employees (AI Agents).
IntellAIgent is a significant leap forward in contact centre technology, able to think and adapt.
Where traditional automation tools such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) fail, IntellAIgent is able to launch and manage complex tasks using multiple platforms and systems such as appointment scheduling, back and forth with customers on different channels, diary entries, responding to real-time scheduling changes, and CRM updates – all without the need for human intervention.
It uses what is known as ‘Agentic AI’ to make autonomous, complex and dynamic decisions and automate any digital workflow, learning as it goes.
Agentic AI combines advanced machine learning, natural language understanding and contextual awareness to create truly autonomous systems that can handle complex business processes with human-like intelligence. In comparison, traditional automation and rules-driven AI follow rigid pathways and struggle with complexity and unpredictable scenarios.
Unlike traditional automation tools which are based on Boolean logic, linear decision trees and rely on human input, FourNet’s AI Agentsolution operates autonomously, adapting to dynamic business needs, handling complex, unstructured data and personalises every customer facing interaction with context-aware, natural conversations.
Richard Pennington, CEO at FourNet said: “FourNetIntellAIgent marks the next evolution in contact centre technology. Our AI-powered agent can do in seconds what it would take a human agent to do in hours or days, and which Gen AI couldn’t handle.
“As many businesses face tighter budgets with fewer employees, IntellAIgent will help organisations across every sector to do more with less, while coping with rising customer expectations.”
Key features of FourNet IntellAIgent include:
Intelligent Decision Making: IntellAIgent is a tireless, intelligent team member that handles repetitive tasks, makes smart decisions, and learns over time.
Multi-Channel Integration: IntellAIgent seamlessly manages customer interactions across various channels, including voice, email, and messaging platforms.
Real-Time Analytics Integration: IntellAIgent makes data-driven decisions as customer interactions unfold.
300+ pre-built integrations– from CRMs like Salesforce, SAP, and Zendesk to communication platforms such as Twilio, Amazon Connect, and Genesys Cloud, IntellAIgent seamlessly connects to the tools businesses already use. It also integrates with the latest Large Language Models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic, ensuring cutting-edge AI capabilities.
James Brooks, Practice Lead for AI and Automation at FourNet, added: “Anyone who has witnessed the technology working at such incredible speed through so many tasks cannot fail to be spectacularly impressed. Forget chatbots, forget RPA which require decision trees and human input, IntellAIgent is way more clever, adaptive and efficient – it’s like automation on acid!”
“By deploying an AI-powered agent that can think, act and learn, we are now enabling organisations big and small to deliver superior customer experience in the blink of an eye, while significantly improving their operational efficiency.”
FourNet has today also launched the IntellAIgent Challenge to discover the most complex task IntellAIgent can handle. To find out more, and learn about FourNet IntellAIgent, please visit www.fournet.co.uk
Focusing on delivering great user experiences and driving operational evolution
Appointing Anna Jackson as its new Chief Operating Officer, training and compliance expert, TTC Group, has reconfirmed its focus on delivering the best possible experiences to employees, customers and prospective customers. With a proven track record of driving operational excellence, Anna is perfectly placed to develop group functions to best support the business as it continues to grow its people risk management solutions in the Fleet, Construction and Healthcare sectors.
Anna Jackson
With more than 20 years of extensive leadership experience, Anna has led successful transformations across global operations of varying sizes and complexities. In her new COO role, Anna will work closely with the Managing Directors of each of the TTC Group businesses to drive revenue growth, integrate new acquisitions into the group and develop group functions to support the business plan. She will also drive the adoption of best practices and technology to optimise operations and enhance performance, developing and maintaining TTC Group’s culture as the company evolves across existing and new markets.
Expressing her enthusiasm for joining TTC Group, Anna Jackson commented: “The opportunity to be part of a successful and diversifying business, backed by private equity investment and a clear growth strategy, is incredibly exciting. I am particularly drawn to the chance to drive operational evolution and change programs while fostering a culture of high performance within TTC Group. My experience across various sectors, coupled with my understanding of both large corporate, SME and Private Equity environments, aligns perfectly with the challenges and opportunities at the expanding TTC Group. I am delighted to join the TTC family and play a part in the company’s continued success.”
Dave Marsh, CEO of TTC Group added, “We are thrilled to welcome Anna to TTC Group. Her deep expertise in operational leadership and her genuine passion for creating and building ambitious teams and workplace cultures will be invaluable as we continue to expand and diversify our business. We look forward to seeing how Anna transforms TTC operations to deliver market-leading employee and customer experiences and business growth.”
By Euan Durston, Regional Director and Passivhaus Designer at ECD Architects
Euan Durston
The UK government’s commitment to improving energy efficiency in social housing has taken a significant step forward with the recent announcement of substantial financial support through the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC). This initiative, which provides £150 million in debt facilities for retrofitting, with plans to expand to £250 million in the coming months, represents a watershed moment for local authorities and housing associations striving to meet sustainability targets, while addressing fuel poverty among residents.
As specialists in low environmental impact architecture and retrofit design, our team has identified three crucial pillars that underpin successful social housing retrofits: People, Performance, and Passivhaus principles. Understanding how these elements interconnect can help public sector organisations maximise the potential of these new funding opportunities.
Putting Residents at the Centre of Retrofit Strategies
Retrofitting occupied homes presents unique challenges, requiring thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation. Unlike new builds, these projects must balance technical requirements with the daily needs of residents who cannot be easily relocated during works.
Our recent collaboration with Cambridge City Council to deliver a Net Zero Retrofit for 50 homes, demonstrates the effectiveness of resident-centred approaches. Working with poorly insulated 1930s housing stock, we developed strategies that minimised disruption, while implementing energy performance improvements. Keeping residents informed and involved throughout the process proved essential to project success.
When undertaking deep retrofits in occupied homes, the focus must shift to external interventions wherever possible. For example, insulating at roof rafter level, rather than loft level, and applying external floor insulation rather than removing internal kitchen floors, allows residents to maintain their living spaces with minimal disruption.
Regular consultation between residents, council representatives, and our technical team ensured clear communication about work schedules and expected outcomes. This transparency helped residents understand how improvements would directly benefit them through increased comfort and reduced energy bills.
Evidence-Based Performance Assessment
The new government-backed loans require evidence of how retrofit measures will improve energy efficiency and reduce heating emissions. This makes comprehensive pre-retrofit performance assessment invaluable.
In our Cambridge project, we conducted thorough baseline assessments, including energy bill analysis, EPC certification, and air-tightness testing. Specialist monitoring determined heat loss rates and analysed temperature and humidity profiles to identify condensation and mould risks. This detailed understanding of building performance informed our selection of appropriate technologies and materials.
Post-completion monitoring is equally important, creating a complete picture of performance improvements that can be used for reporting outcomes to providers of funds. This evidence-based approach also identifies components of existing houses that remain serviceable, supporting circular economy principles and reducing project costs.
Understanding the starting point is critical for designing effective interventions. Data-backed designs not only deliver better outcomes, but also strengthen funding applications by demonstrating clear pathways to improvement.
Leveraging Passivhaus Standards for Quality Assurance
The Passivhaus Standard and its retrofit counterpart, EnerPhit, provide internationally recognised frameworks for delivering high-performance, comfortable, and energy-efficient buildings. These standards are increasingly adopted in the public sector because they address multiple challenges simultaneously: improving comfort, reducing energy consumption, minimising carbon emissions, and eliminating common building problems like condensation and mould.
As certified Passivhaus designers, we utilise the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) to model energy performance at each project stage. This iterative process informed our Cambridge retrofit specifications, including external wall insulation, triple-glazed windows, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and air-source heat pumps.
The independent certification process inherent in Passivhaus standards helps close the performance gap between design intentions and built reality. This delivers housing that performs as predicted – a crucial factor when applying for government-backed retrofit loans that require demonstrated improvements.
In essence, the rigour of Passivhaus principles ensures that investments in retrofit deliver genuine, long-term benefits. The focus on building physics and quality assurance throughout construction means these homes will maintain their performance for decades.
Meeting Government Targets Through Strategic Retrofits
With the government targeting Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings of Band C as a minimum for social housing, strategic retrofit programmes are becoming essential for local authorities and housing associations, and the new loan facilities from the NWF provide competitive, unsecured lending that can finance comprehensive improvements, including:
Low carbon heating systems
Enhanced insulation packages
Mechanical ventilation systems
Renewable energy installations
Smart heating controls
These interventions, when approached through our three-pillar framework, deliver homes that are more comfortable, healthier, and significantly less expensive to heat – directly addressing fuel poverty concerns, while meeting carbon reduction targets.
Looking Forward
The expansion of government-backed retrofit funding to potentially £1 billion represents a significant opportunity for the public sector. By focusing on people-centred approaches, evidence-based performance assessment, and trusted standards like Passivhaus, local authorities can make the most of these financial resources.
Our experience with Cambridge City Council demonstrates that even challenging 1930s housing stock can be transformed with the right approach. As the government continues to support social housing improvements, we remain committed to helping public sector clients navigate the technical and practical challenges of large-scale retrofit programmes.
Public sector organisations interested in exploring retrofit options that align with new funding opportunities are encouraged to consider how these three pillars might shape their approach to housing improvement programmes.
Imagine starting your workday in the public sector: battling through a maze of outdated systems, juggling incompatible platforms, and spending far too much time navigating digital tools. From document management to HR systems, procurement tools to internal comms, digital sprawl is the invisible time-thief, and it costs more than mere minutes.
Over 25% of UK government digital systems are now considered outdated. In a rare admission of the scale of the problem, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology recently revealed that failures caused by legacy systems cost taxpayers an eye-watering £45 billion annually.
Outdated systems are holding you back
These systems aren’t just old, they’re obstructive. As Swagath Bandhakavi noted in Tech Monitor (January 2025), “Many public sector organisations continue to rely on outdated legacy systems, which can significantly impede digital transformation efforts. These systems often lack flexibility, have high maintenance costs, and can be vulnerable to security threats.”
Productivity suffers when tech Is fragmented
At Workspace 365, we wanted to quantify the true cost of this digital friction. In our 2025 survey of over 1,000 employees working in UK organisations with 250+ staff, the message was clear: fragmented technology is hurting productivity. 59% of respondents said their organisation should prioritise simplifying the digital workplace to improve output, a figure that rose to 65% among employees in large organisations with more than 5,000 staff.
When technology drives talent away
This fragmented tech environment isn’t just inconvenient. It makes basic tasks harder, demotivates employees, and adds friction across every workflow. In an overstretched public sector, every wasted minute matters, and so does every lost employee.
Employee retention, often viewed as an HR concern, has become a digital issue. Our research found that 24% of employees would consider leaving their job due to overly complex internal IT systems. A further 35% said they might look elsewhere. Combined, nearly 6 in 10 employees are at risk of walking away, not because of the work itself, but because the tools aren’t up to the task.
Big budgets, slow progress
This is especially alarming given the scale of the UK public sector’s digital investment. Annual spending on digital technology exceeds £26 billion, and the sector employs nearly 100,000 digital and data professionals. Even conservative National Audit Office estimates place digital spending at a minimum of £14 billion per year. And yet, despite this investment, the pace of transformation often lags behind the urgency.
IT simplification in the UK Public Sector
Workplace Insight notes that while the UK government has reaffirmed its commitment to becoming a tech-first public sector, major barriers remain: widespread skills shortages and persistent reliance on legacy infrastructure continue to slow progress. The £2 billion earmarked for IT upgrades in the NHS is a step forward, but in many areas, transformation is still playing catch-up.
A significant 60% of healthcare professionals we surveyed believe their organisation should invest in simplifying the digital workplace to improve productivity.
An impressive benchmark
Still, change is underway. The Digital Development Strategy 2024–2030 sets the vision for modernising infrastructure across the public sector, incorporating cloud services, AI, and digital public infrastructure to enhance service delivery and efficiency. Complementing this is the Government Cloud First policy, now in its twelfth year, which mandates public bodies to consider cloud solutions as their default. Today, around 60% of public sector IT systems have migrated to the cloud, an impressive benchmark even compared to private sector adoption.
The savings opportunity and real-world results
The Ministry of Justice offers a compelling example. By moving to the cloud, they’ve streamlined operations, improved collaboration, and reduced reliance on legacy tools, demonstrating the tangible benefits of simplification in action.
More than half (56%) of healthcare employees told us they desire a centralised location for accessing tools, applications, and documents without the need to switch systems.
According to Public Technology (Feb 2025), full-scale digitisation of the public sector could unlock savings and productivity gains equivalent to 4–7% of total public sector spending. It’s a staggering figure, and it points to one conclusion: digital transformation isn’t just an efficiency play. It’s one of the most powerful levers available to modernise and reform public services.
A simpler, smarter workplace
Getting there means taking deliberate, strategic steps. Successful organisations are:
Conducting digital audits to assess the current digital landscape and identify bottlenecks. This allows for more effective use of resources by pinpointing problematic systems and manual processes. The insights also support strategic planning, enabling evidence-based digital transformation aligned with agency goals.
Digital audits also support risk mitigation by identifying security vulnerabilities and compliance risks early, helping reduce the chances of data breaches or regulatory penalties.
Implementing cloud-first procurement policies enables agencies to quickly adapt to changing demands without heavy infrastructure investment. They can reduce upfront costs through pay-as-you-go models, and deploy services faster. This approach also supports better collaboration across departments and contributes to sustainability goals by minimising reliance on physical data centers.
By connecting data and workflows across departments, agencies can eliminate redundant processes, improve accuracy, and detect anomalies more effectively. Automation also ensures consistent compliance and reduces duplication, waste, and fraud.
By creating a cohesive digital workplace focused on ease of use, public sector organisations can make better-informed decisions, reduce duplication of effort, and deliver services with greater confidence, speed, and consistency.
Forbes Solicitors has announced that partner Chris Booth will lead its newly formed Public Sector division, as the firm completes a restructure to fulfil its ambition of being the number one regional law firm with a national reach.
Chris, who has been part of the Forbes family since 2002, steps up from his previous role as Head of Insurance to lead a team of over 100 professionals who make up the Public Sector division.
Kella Bowers takes over the Head of Insurance role from Chris Booth, with Alastair Gillespie promoted to Head of Abuse and Social Care within the division’s Insurance department. The insurance and care departments work across both the public and private sectors.
They join existing heads of department in the division, who are Catherine Kennedy, Head of Housing and Regeneration (Property), Siobhan Hardy, Head of Housing and Regeneration (Litigation), Jonathan Holden, National Head of Employment and Education, and Daniel Milnes, Partner, Governance & Procurement.
The changes follow the creation of three specialist divisions at the 200-year-old law firm, with the Public Sector division joining the Commercial division, led by Emma Swan, and the Consumer division, led by Adam Bromley. Each of the three divisional leaders is a ‘Legal 500 Recommended Lawyer’ and share more than 60 years’ experience between them advising SMEs, public sector organisations and individuals.
Forbes’ Public Sector division has, within its roster of clients, over 100 registered providers of social housing, more than 60 local authorities and numerous education establishments, as well as many leading insurers and brokers. The divisional team provides expert advice covering an array of legal matters, including specialist areas such as health and safety, employment, occupational and industrial disease, and data protection.
Commenting on his new role, Chris Booth said: “We’re proud to have relationships with public sector clients stretching back over the last 50 years. These relationships are built on a deep understanding of the complexities and opportunities facing organisations and providing expert support that helps them to navigate fast-changing circumstances and regulations. Our new team structure will enable us to strengthen this proposition through even richer sector knowledge allied to our renowned people-first services.
“Many public sector bodies are facing a multitude of pressures. There are expectations to enhance service standards and users’ satisfaction, while addressing financial challenges and carefully managing the risks of an increasingly litigious society. Addressing this dynamic requires dedicated expertise – a factor that our new structure champions.”
The new divisional team structure is the inspiration and vision of Forbes Solicitors’ Managing Partner, Pauline Wild, who commented: “Chris and his departmental heads are all highly experienced professionals with an in-depth appreciation of how legal challenges can manifest and quickly diversify in the public sector. They personify the levels of service and ways of working that set Forbes apart as being more than law and their strategic leadership will drive the development of our Public Sector division.
“Our new divisional structure fosters collaboration across each of the teams and creates opportunities for everyone to thrive, so they can truly focus on delivering what clients need. This requires strong and empathetic leadership in each division and will drive our growth.”
Professor Glenda Cook, Director of the Better Living in Later Life Research Group at Northumbria University and spokesperson for Stiltz Homelifts, issues a stark warning:
“Ignoring the housing needs of our ageing population is no longer an option. Change is not only overdue—it is critical.”
Britain faces a demographic time bomb that demands immediate and sustained action. Around 13 million citizens—nearly one in five—are aged 65 and over. By 2050, this proportion will rise to one in four. Yet despite the scale of this demographic shift, our housing stock and community infrastructure remain dangerously ill-equipped to support an ageing society.
Professor Glenda Cook
At present, hundreds of thousands of older adults face an unacceptable choice: remain in homes that no longer meet their needs or leave behind familiar surroundings for specialist accommodation. Already, 440,000 individuals have moved into care homes—many reluctantly—raising a fundamental question: Is this truly the best solution Britain can offer?
The Health Secretary, the Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, has recognised this challenge, pledging to strengthen community-based care to reduce reliance on hospitals and residential homes. However, achieving this vision requires more than funding promises; it necessitates a fundamental rethinking of how government, families, and communities support older people’s right to age in place.
The urgency is stark: only 9% of UK homes meet the most basic accessibility standards. Features such as level thresholds, wider doorways, and accessible bathrooms, which can significantly prolong independent living, remain rare. Under current planning regulations, these features are not mandatory for new builds. Without decisive policy intervention, this shortfall will only deepen.
Why does this matter? For older citizens, a home is not merely a physical structure—it is an anchor of identity, mental well-being, and community connection. Research shows that over 40% of Britons see their home as central to their mental health, while 60% state they would feel ‘devastated’ if forced to relocate. Losing a familiar home often results in severing social ties, with evidence suggesting such disruption can accelerate cognitive decline and physical deterioration and drive up both NHS and social care costs.
The good news is that solutions are available and affordable if implemented proactively. Future-proofing homes—through adaptations such as accessible bathrooms, level access, and modern home lifts—can be significantly less costly than prolonged residential care. However, awareness of these options remains low, and financial support through the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) is insufficient and overly restrictive. Renters, in particular, face serious barriers, often unable to secure necessary adaptations.
To address this, urgent reforms are needed. The government must expand eligibility and significantly increase funding for grants that support home adaptations, ensuring interventions are proactive rather than crisis-driven. New housing developments should be mandated to incorporate age-friendly design features as a standard requirement, aligning with the government’s pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes. It is also essential to support private sector innovation and raise public awareness about the availability and benefits of adaptation technologies that can extend independent living. In parallel, efforts must strengthen community infrastructure, ensuring that older citizens remain socially connected and actively engaged within their local communities.
This is not merely a matter of individual well-being but a national economic imperative. Keeping older people healthy, independent, and connected reduces demands on health and social care services and strengthens community resilience.
Britain cannot afford complacency. Ageing in place must be recognised as a societal priority, integral to public health strategy, housing policy, and community planning. Delivering dignity, independence, and respect for older citizens is not just a moral obligation—it is a necessity for a sustainable future.
The clock is ticking. Policymakers must act decisively to ensure that Britain is a country where people can age with confidence, security, and pride in their communities.
Finbogo, a ground-breaking digital platform designed to streamline public access to private healthcare practitioners, has secured significant investment to lead a new, digitally driven era within private healthcare.
While sectors such as property, retail, and hospitality have rapidly embraced digital transformation over the past twenty years, making services easily accessible to consumers, private healthcare has significantly lagged—until now.
Henry Anderson, aged 23, who is a co-founder of Finbogo and leads the team of 40 at its Headquarters in Greater Manchester, is set to revolutionise the private therapy market which is currently valued at £23billion and projected to reach £53billion by 2030.1
With 67% of the UK population willing to pay for private healthcare services, there’s no reason practitioners should struggle for visibility or business. Today, opting for private care is increasingly viewed as a proactive investment in long-term health and well-being rather than a luxury. Finbogo is at the forefront, redefining what it means to ‘go private’ in the digital age.
“At Finbogo, we are creating a thriving community,” says Henry Anderson, Commercial Director. “With over 400,000 practitioners across the UK and an anticipated annual growth rate of 16.7% to 2030, the demand for an efficient, transparent comparison platform has never been greater.”
“For the first time, the public will be able to find, compare and book treatments with private practitioners through its intuitive comparison site, empowering users to effortlessly select the best practitioner suited to their specific needs.”
In the past decade, demand for private healthcare services has surged by 65%, driven significantly by lengthy NHS waiting times and a proactive shift towards preventive healthcare, fuelled by less than one in four people in the UK expressing satisfaction with NHS operations the lowest in 41 years.2
Simultaneously, the therapy sector has experienced explosive growth, attracting many professionals retraining from diverse career backgrounds.
Henry Anderson further commented: “Increasing numbers of individuals across the UK are seeking private healthcare accessible on their terms, but potential patients struggle to locate appropriate practitioners, while practitioners themselves face challenges to fill their appointment slots.”
“Finbogo is on a mission to bridge this gap with innovative technology, enabling users to quickly find, book, and attend the care they need.”
Appointment comes following her successful oversight of the £2Bn IT portfolio at UK’s Ministry of Defence
Quantum Trilogy, a technology company providing mission-critical, agile solutions to urgent government needs, is delighted to announce the appointment of Rebecca Alderson as Chief Portfolio Officer, as the company experiences a significant surge of interest.
Rebecca Alderson
In the new role, Alderson – who is well-versed in navigating challenging, classified, and highly intricate environments – will oversee the company’s portfolio strategy and alignment. She will ensure the initiatives support the company’s long-term vision and priorities – balancing innovation with core business growth. She will serve as the bridge between strategy and execution teams to develop Quantum Trilogy’s customer acquisition pipeline and relationship strategy.
Alderson brings over 10 years of experience working at the UK’s Ministry of Defence delivering large scale complex and classified programs which supported operations in the most challenging environments. This was across both the defence digital space and wider global defense community.
Most recently, Alderson was the Head of Portfolio Management for Defence Digital, which saw her oversee a £2Bn IT portfolio, delivering mission-critical capabilities across the globe. This experience will be vital to lead the delivery of ongoing projects, ensuring best-in-class execution for clients operating in exceptionally complex and high-stakes arenas.
“Rebecca’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for Quantum Trilogy, as demand for our mission-critical solutions continues to grow at pace,” said Alain Obadia, CEO at Quantum Trilogy. “Her deep expertise in managing complex, high-stakes portfolios, coupled with her proven track record of delivering at the very highest level, will be instrumental in helping us scale with purpose, while continuing to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.”
Rebecca Alderson comments, “It is certainly an exciting time to be joining Quantum Trilogy, and I am thrilled to be a part of its growth trajectory, so early on.
I look forward to building a world-class team, where together we can focus on forming strong customer partnerships that drive forward an ambitious portfolio of work.”
As the impact of recent Government and economic decisions have put local councils under more pressure than ever before, councils are turning to digital technology to build efficiencies that can improve their financial position to be able to maximise provision for their communities.
In fact, a survey by the County Councils Network (CCN) has revealed that more than half (51%) of England’s county and rural local authorities are more likely to cut their 2025 services in adult social care, such as care homes and support for voluntary and charity groups. There is additional pressure with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology’s publication of the new Blueprint for Modern Digital Government.
This may also see council technology leaders who haven’t already embarked on digitalisation scrambling for ways to integrate disparate customer data sources to save costs and improve resident experiences. Yet many local authorities lack the digital maturity or don’t know where to start.
Challenges for local councils to digitalise services
As part of their remit, local authorities provide a wide range of services to a population with diverse requirements, which leads to a wealth of data from a range of sources, held in disparate locations in legacy systems, and on paper, email, or cumbersome spreadsheets.
In a typical scenario where a resident needs to contact a council about its services or to make a report or a change, their engagement may be via phone call, email, or completion of a form. There is typically no central hub for the resident to keep track of progress in their case or to add an update. This may prompt a follow-up call to the call centre that is already over-stretched and unable to give the resident the time required. In turn this can negatively impact the experience for both the resident and call centre staff.
How the single view of the citizen works
The answer is to have shared data that runs across all customer touchpoints. This is critical to cut down administration and enable a smooth customer experience. This is known as the Single View of the Citizen, which aims to replace outdated and inefficient processes, bringing data sources and services together for efficient handling and secure access via the local authority Contact Centre’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool.
With a Single View of the Citizen, contact centre staff can deal with cases and requests more efficiently and effectively. It eliminates time-wasting duplication, can speed up case resolution and send automated notifications to appropriate residents, improving resident experience and reducing operator workload in an otherwise often overstretched environment.
By embracing digital technology to unify systems and provide a Single View of the Citizen, budget-saving changes can be made. Critically, business information reporting tools can be used to identify potential savings, for instance where more income may be available for the council to help support their service provision, or where particular demand exists for adult or children’s social care services.
A resident portal which centralises all information not only improves the resident’s user experience by reducing the number of different accounts they need to manage, but also minimises the number of calls they may need to make to the contact centre raising or following up cases, thus reducing the team’s workload. This also allows contact centre staff to allocate more time where required to resolve the residents’ issues effectively.
Resident Portal and other functionality
There is specific technology that can enable services to be available online 24/7, which most consumers now expect of council services. These should include:
Resident Portal
This is a hub where the resident can access multiple services via SSO (Single Sign-on). The aim is for residents to be able to make a council tax payment, start a garden waste subscription, submit a report, or respond to local planning applications, for example, through one portal without having to remember multiple sets of login credentials.
Functionality for field staff
Functionality for field staff to interact with, and update, cases in the central CRM system can be available through use of the Dynamics Field Service module on an iPad or smartphone. By replacing a manual process where a paper form is completed in triplicate and information copied to the system once back in the office, this will save significant administration time and reduce the risk of human error.
Business Information Reporting
The consolidation of data from various locations and apps also improves data visibility and consistency for business information reporting, utilising tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Dynamics Customer Insights to look at such areas as debt and demand as a Single View. Such analysis can be used to identify potential savings, where more income may be available for the council to help support their service provision, or where particular demand exists for adult or children’s social care services for example.
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