Track the business activity and commercial plans of Lichfield District Council — identify tender and future spending opportunities before they reach the market, follow cabinet and committee decisions, and understand the council’s priorities, with intelligence extracted from 30 analysed meetings.
Meetings analysed30
Procurement opportunities10
Pressures tracked42
Estimated pipeline value£144m–£160m
Lichfield District Council Procurement Intelligence | QuorumInsight
Active procurement topics
Over the last 12 months, the most frequently discussed commercial topics in this council's meetings have been Professional Services (29 mentions, easing), Construction & Building Works (26 mentions, easing), IT & Digital (23 mentions, rising) and Housing (22 mentions, rising).
Commercial signals extracted from recent Lichfield District Council meetings — approvals, budget decisions and early procurement discussions, before a tender is published.
Government has decided that Staffordshire will be reorganised into two unitary authorities, affecting future governance, staff structures, election timing and local decision-making. The committee discussed how this will shape warding, joint committees and the transfer of responsibilities, with officers preparing options for the shadow authority and local representatives.
“So um it talks about the the names of the councils and I'll share that with you in a minute. Uh the number of counselors each council in the north and the south will have the makeup of the joint committees who will be responsible between now and the shadow authority be elected to…”
Cabinet approved the main round of strategic CIL/SIL spending, allocating £1,476,000 into the MTFS capital programme 2026/27 to fund a range of community and sports projects. The allocations included major grants such as £500,000 to Street Hay Parish Council, £200,000 to Chasewood Football Club, just over £100,000 to Burntwood Rugby Club, and other smaller awards. This is a significant capital spending decision funded by developer contributions.
“It's an exciting report really because we're um allocating um over 1.4 million pound of strategic sill funding um potentially to 12 applicants. Um we do this every year. Uh I think it's worth reminding people who might be watching that uh sill funding comes from developers. It's…”
Council adopted the Lichfield City Centre Shopfront Design Code as a supplementary planning document. Members described it as giving statutory weight and 'real teeth' to design standards. The code is separate from the future high streets grant scheme, but it will shape how businesses and developers must design and refurbish frontages, affecting future spending and compliance decisions.
“I'm delighted to bring the Lfield shop front design code to full council this evening and I'm formally moving that we adopt this document as a supplementary planning document or SPD. I'm also incredibly pleased that this motion will be seconded tonight by my colleague, the cabine…”
The treasury report recorded an £8.5 million capital underspend, mainly from the cinema development, delayed social housing acquisitions, and delayed food waste vehicle deliveries. Cabinet approved carrying this slippage into the 2026-27 budget, with lower borrowing need as a consequence.
“So capital program was underspent by 8.5 million around 35%. Three main reasons in the report for that slippage. So the cinema development so we assume payment of contributions during the financial year in line with the members agreement where we got no requests from the LLP to m…”
The council reported substantial investment in housing and homelessness services, including buying temporary accommodation properties, expanding the housing portfolio with social rented homes, and spending DFG grants on adaptations. This is direct spend with clear procurement implications across property acquisition, construction and support services.
“We've invested just under5 million pounds in purchasing our own properties. Uh we've got now got 22 properties that we directly own. They're fully occupied and we've got a further seven in the pipeline. Uh we've developed our in-house outreach uh model for people who are uh rough…”
Cabinet endorsed the Burntwood regeneration and investment study and identified Burntwood Town Shopping Centre as the council’s primary regeneration priority. The study was commissioned with £80,000 of revenue funding plus £1.2 million of capital allocation, and it sets out a long-term framework likely to create future opportunities for land assembly, redevelopment, project management, design, and delivery contracts.
“So this evening we're presenting the Burntwood regeneration and investment study um which is a significant piece of work commissioned following full council's allocation of £80,000 in 2425 uh alongside the 1.2 million pounds uh capital allocation intended to support regeneration…”
The committee spent much of the meeting on Staffordshire local government reorganisation, including the move to two new unitary authorities, staff readiness, joint committees, parish election timing and future governance arrangements. It also scrutinised the year-end performance and financial update, covering housing acquisition, regeneration, planning performance, FOI compliance, local supplier spend and the carbon dashboard. Members raised several procurement-relevant issues, including taxi rank and coach access, regeneration project delivery, and the need for stronger oversight of major projects such as the cinema and local plan.
The committee spent most of the meeting on a contentious outline housing application for up to 250 dwellings at Culter Lane Farm, Burntwood. Officers recommended approval subject to a Section 106 agreement, citing gray belt policy, affordable housing, highways no-objection, flood mitigation, and no education or health contributions requested by statutory consultees. Members and speakers raised major concerns about green belt status, infrastructure capacity, highways safety, flooding, heritage, and whether the site should be refused or deferred, but the committee ultimately minded to refuse by 9 votes to 2. A second item in Cwell on a retrospective replacement building in the green belt was approved unanimously after officers said it now met the replacement-building exception and highway concerns were resolved.
The committee focused heavily on local government reorganisation, especially workforce risks, retention, morale and how the new unitary structure will affect staffing, councils, and arms-length companies. It also reviewed the annual treasury management report, noting capital underspends linked to housing, food waste vehicles and the cinema project, plus questions about project-level transparency. Other assurance items included the SIP resilience index, internal audit annual opinion, cyber risk reduction, business continuity completion, and upcoming GDPR training.
The meeting focused heavily on major procurement and spending issues, especially the escalating cost of the Lichfield cinema redevelopment and the governance changes needed to complete it. Members also discussed local plan infrastructure delivery, GP and health provision pressures linked to development, the reallocation of community infrastructure funds, and several policy and constitutional changes including pensions, waste, standards, and inclusion-related motions.
Cabinet approved the year-end performance report, the local plan delegation scheme, and a substantial round of CIL allocations. The meeting highlighted major spending on temporary accommodation, ongoing pressures from local government reorganisation and planning delays, and a detailed discussion of procurement maturity, local supplier spend, and the need to shift more activity into planned procurement. The council also confirmed financial outturns, reserve usage, and continued investment in leisure, CCTV and other capital priorities.
The committee focused on the rollout of food waste collections, including vehicle delivery, staffing, caddy distribution, communications, and monitoring participation. Members also discussed a joint campaign on vapes, batteries and electrical waste with external support, along with performance issues such as missed bins, complaints, sickness, and recycling rates. Financially, the service reported an underspend but highlighted ongoing budget pressures from sickness, replacement containers, food waste operating costs, and uncertainty over waste disposal and producer-responsibility funding. The meeting also approved the joint waste business plan, updated the risk register, and agreed future work on extreme-weather resilience, fuel efficiency, and campaign baselines.