On 1 April 2027 Surrey's county authority and its eleven districts and boroughs are replaced by two new authorities. Since 8 July 2026 most of them have needed the new authority's consent for contracts over £100,000 that run past that date. Without consent, the contract cannot be enforced against the new authority.
If you sell to a local authority in Surrey, your customer has about six months left. On 1 April 2027 the county authority and its eleven districts and boroughs are wound up and dissolved, and two new authorities, East Surrey and West Surrey, take over everything they do (the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026, made on 9 March 2026).
A contract you already hold moves across with them. A contract signed since 8 July is a different matter. If it is over a set size, runs past April and nobody asked the new authority first, the new authority does not have to honour it. The rule that decides this is not in the Procurement Act 2023. It sits in a 2007 Act about local government structure, which is not where a bid team looks.
Three questions to ask about a service contract in Surrey
- Did you sign it on or after 8 July 2026 with the county authority, or with any district or borough except Woking and Spelthorne?
- Does it run past 1 April 2027, or could it be extended past that date?
- Is it worth more than £100,000, counting your other contracts with that authority since April 2025?
Three yeses mean you need to see the consent before you rely on the contract. Capital contracts and land sales have their own tests, set out below.
Which authorities are going, and who takes over?
Twelve go and two arrive. The two new authorities were elected in May 2026 and have been running in shadow form since, taking the decisions for the handover while the existing twelve keep delivering services.
| New authority from 1 April 2027 | Replaces these districts and boroughs | And |
|---|---|---|
| East Surrey | Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge | The county authority’s services in the east |
| West Surrey | Guildford, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Waverley, Woking | The county authority’s services in the west |
Source: the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026 (SI 2026/264).
What happens to a contract you already hold?
It transfers. Under the 2008 transfer regulations a dissolved authority’s “property, rights and liabilities” pass to its successor on the reorganisation date, and the Order gives each existing authority the job of preparing for that. A contract with Guildford should become a contract with West Surrey.
A contract with the county authority is less simple, because the county has two successors. East Surrey and West Surrey must use their best endeavours to agree which of them takes each of its contracts, or whether they hold one jointly. If they have not agreed by 1 January 2027, three months before the date, the Secretary of State names one or both of them to hold whatever is left (regulations 8 and 11 to 13 of the 2008 regulations). If you supply the whole county, ask now which authority you will be invoicing in April.
What changed on 8 July?
The government switched on a control that exists for exactly this situation. Under section 24 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, the Secretary of State can direct that an authority about to be dissolved may not make certain commitments “without the written consent” of a named body. The direction for Surrey was published on 7 July 2026 and has applied since 8 July. The named bodies are the East Surrey and West Surrey shadow authorities.
| What the existing authority wants to do | Needs consent when | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Sign a non-capital contract, which covers most services paid for from day-to-day budgets | The price is over £100,000 | Only if the contract runs past 1 April 2027 or “may be extended beyond that date” |
| Sign a capital contract, meaning spending the authority treats as capital, which normally includes building works | The price is over £1,000,000 | At any price if the contract allows the price to be varied |
| Sell land | The price is over £100,000 | Earlier sales count towards the limit |
Source: sections 24(1) and 27 of the 2007 Act; section 24 direction to Surrey authorities, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 7 July 2026.
These limits are written into the Act, not chosen for Surrey, so a direction made for any other area would carry the same ones. Whether a software purchase counts as capital depends on how the authority accounts for it, so ask. Nine of the eleven districts and boroughs and the county authority are covered. Woking and Spelthorne are not, because commissioners already oversee both: the direction says they “are currently in best value intervention”.
Is £100,000 the price of your contract alone?
No. Section 27 of the 2007 Act adds contracts together. When an authority works out whether a contract is over the limit, it has to count the price of any other contract it has made after 31 March 2025 with the same supplier, and of any other contract made after that date for “the same or a similar description of matter”. The date was reset from 2006 by an order made on 6 July 2026, the day before the Surrey direction was published (SI 2026/763).
Here is an example with invented figures. You signed a £50,000 support contract with Guildford in June 2025. In October 2026 you sign a second, for £60,000, running to September 2027. On its own the new contract is under the limit. Counted with the first it is £110,000 (£50,000 plus £60,000), it runs past 1 April 2027, and it needs consent.
What if nobody asked for consent?
Section 28 of the 2007 Act deals with it in one sentence: a contract made in contravention of a direction “is not enforceable against a successor”. The authority that signed it is dissolved on the day the successor arrives. You carry that risk, not the authority, and where it leaves a claim for work already done is a question for your lawyer.
Before you call one, check whether consent was in fact given. Consent can be general. The Act lets a shadow authority approve whole descriptions of contract in advance, and the Surrey authorities’ reorganisation hub says both shadow authorities have given a general consent for normal services and approved projects already in the 2026/27 budgets, up to 1 April 2027. That covers routine buying within this year’s budgets. Whether it covers a new deal that runs for years after April is the thing to check. Ask the authority which consent covers your contract, the general one or a specific one, and have the answer recorded with the award.
Does this apply outside Surrey?
Not yet. On 7 September 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government withdrew its reorganisation decisions for four areas (Essex with Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, Norfolk, and Suffolk) and announced a rapid review of the programme. Its notice says this “does not impact the decision taken in Surrey”. So Surrey carries on, and it is where this control is in use now.
Other areas may follow, and section 27 already counts contracts made after 31 March 2025. A contract you sign this winter with an authority outside Surrey can count towards the limit if a direction is later made there.
What should you do before April?
| If you | Do this |
|---|---|
| Hold a contract with a Surrey district or borough | Ask the authority to confirm your contract is on its list for transfer, and who your contact will be from 1 April 2027 |
| Hold a contract with the county authority | Ask whether East Surrey, West Surrey or both will take it |
| Have signed anything since 8 July 2026 | Ask which consent covers it and keep the reply with the contract |
| Are about to extend an older contract | Ask whether the authority treats the extension as needing consent, because the Act does not spell it out |
| Are bidding for Surrey work now | Put the consent question in your clarification questions before you price |
| Sell the same service to several Surrey authorities | Work out which of your contracts will sit side by side in one authority from April |
Source: our reading of the Order, the direction and the 2007 Act, set out above.
The last row matters most commercially. From April, East Surrey holds the contracts of five districts and boroughs and its share of the county’s. Where those five bought the same service from different suppliers, one authority has five contracts for one job, and we do not expect it to keep five for long. Our consultants map where a supplier sits in that picture as part of Strategic Public Sector Growth.
What should officers in other areas take from Surrey?
Three things, all from the order in which Surrey did it. East Surrey’s shadow executive approved its general consents on 8 June 2026, a month before the direction applied, with the stated aim that day-to-day services “will continue as normal”. The limits count contracts back to April 2025, so you need to be able to list every contract by supplier and by subject from that date. And the Local Government Association’s guidance of 8 May 2026 says, of capital programmes, that “novation of any existing contracts, frameworks etc will need to be achieved prior to vesting day”. The same work falls on service contracts, and it cannot be done for a contract that is not on your register. Matching what you pay against what you hold on contract is the first step in our Procurement Act 2023 Compliance Reviews, and it produces the list a successor authority will ask you for.
If you have signed anything in Surrey since July, ask the consent question this week, while the authority that signed it is still there to answer.
Questions suppliers are asking
When are Surrey's existing local authorities dissolved?
On 1 April 2027. The Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026, made on 9 March 2026, winds up and dissolves the county authority and all eleven districts and boroughs on that date and establishes two new authorities, East Surrey and West Surrey, in their place.
Does my existing contract transfer to the new authority?
It should. Under the Local Government (Structural Changes) (Transfer of Functions, Property, Rights and Liabilities) Regulations 2008, a dissolved authority's property, rights and liabilities pass to its successor on the reorganisation date (regulation 7). The county authority has two successors, so East Surrey and West Surrey must use their best endeavours to agree which takes each county contract, and the Secretary of State decides what is left unagreed three months before the date (regulations 8 and 11 to 13).
Which contracts need consent under the section 24 direction?
From 8 July 2026, a non-capital contract over £100,000 that runs, or may be extended, past 1 April 2027; a capital contract over £1,000,000, or one that allows the price to be varied; and a land sale over £100,000 (section 24(1) of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007; direction of 7 July 2026). Under section 27, other contracts made after 31 March 2025 with the same supplier, or for the same or a similar matter, count towards the limit.
What happens to a contract signed without consent?
Section 28(2) of the 2007 Act says a contract entered into in contravention of a direction is not enforceable against a successor. The authority that signed it is dissolved on 1 April 2027. Take legal advice on your own position, and before that ask the authority which consent, general or specific, covers the contract.
Does the section 24 control apply outside Surrey?
Not at present. On 7 September 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government withdrew its decisions for four areas and announced a rapid review of the programme, and its notice says this does not impact the decision taken in Surrey. The limits are set in the 2007 Act, so a direction made for another area would carry the same ones.
Sources: the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026 (SI 2026/264), made 9 March 2026; Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, sections 24, 26, 27 and 28, as shown on legislation.gov.uk on 5 October 2026; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Local government reorganisation: section 24 direction to Surrey authorities relating to financial transactions, published 7 July 2026; Local Government (Structural Changes) (Transfer of Functions, Property, Rights and Liabilities) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2176), regulations 7, 8 and 11 to 13; the Local Government (Structural and Boundary Changes) (Control of Disposals etc.) (Amendment) Order 2026 (SI 2026/763), made 6 July 2026; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Local government reorganisation: programme review and decisions withdrawal, notice published 7 September 2026; Local Government Association, LGR finance essentials: understanding how assets are transferred, 8 May 2026; Surrey Local Government Reorganisation Hub, The LGR process and news of 8 June 2026, read 5 October 2026.