Government crest Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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Laying the foundations for the local public services of the future

About Us

About Local Digital

Local Digital is a dedicated team within the UK Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

Our mission is to support the national ‘Local Digital’ movement that brings together everyone required to make excellent local public services for users and taxpayers.

What is the Local Digital movement?

Local Digital is a growing community of organisations working together with a shared vision: to deliver more user-centred, cost-effective local public services through open, collaborative and reusable work.

The community was drawn together around the Local Digital Declaration, a shared ambition for the future of local public services. It is supported by funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), to provide digital training to signatories and to fund collaborative, council-led projects.

How we support the Local Digital movement

We support the Local Digital movement by:

  • helping organisations to implement the principles of the Local Digital Declaration
  • supporting local authorities to build reusable tools, guides and standards
  • building digital capability within local government
  • encouraging collaboration within the Local Digital community

We do this through the Local Digital Fund, events, training and cyber.

On this website you can also find news and funding opportunities from our counterpart team, Digital Planning.

Follow our progress

We encourage local authorities and supporting organisations to join our community and follow our progress.

To stay in touch with our work:

Are you ready to join the Local Digital movement?

The Local Digital Declaration was co-authored in 2018 by 45 organisations including DLUHC, Government Digital Service (GDS), many local public sector bodies and over 20 local authorities.

It calls on the sector to take collaborative actions to improve local services for users, support more diversity and competition in the public sector IT market, and offer better value-for-money by building reusable patterns and standards.

The Declaration has already been signed by 302 local authorities and supporting organisations in England, and each signatory has committed to a first action in support of the movement.

Join the Local Digital movement

  1. First, make sure you understand what the Declaration is, who can sign and the benefits of signing.
  2. Then, read the Declaration in full – including what we ask you to commit to.
  3. Before you sign, read our guidance on making a commitment.
  4. When you’re ready, sign up to the Declaration.

Watch the video below to learn more about the vision and principles of the Local Digital Declaration:

Read a transcript of the ‘About the Local Digital Declaration’ video