The experience of joining local government from the private sector: “The most rewarding thing is feeling like I’m having on-the-ground impact”

At LGIU, we believe local government is the product of the amazing people involved in it. Sharing and listening to personal stories from within the sector can provide valuable information, raise unheard voices, increase awareness of issues, and develop fresh ideas to tackle future challenges. For this reason, we interviewed four officers from LGIU member councils to gain insight into the practice of local government recruiting from the private sector.

Two officers shared their firsthand perspective of transitioning into local government, while their managers, spoke about why they looked to the private sector in the first place, using the Public Practice scheme to recruit them. In this feature, we find out what the drivers are behind switching, what the experience is like, and what the impact is on local government.

The interviewees’ backgrounds

We spoke with Iona Norton and Jamie Carswell from the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Iona spent six years as a senior mechanical engineer at Arup before joining the council as their Housing, Energy and Sustainability Manager in 2022. In contrast, her manager, Jamie Carswell, has served at the council since 2018 as the Director of Housing and Safer Communities.

The team Iona joined recently launched the Greenwich Green Investment, a community-driven initiative that allows residents, businesses, and organisations to invest in local environmental projects. Iona has been directly involved in leading the borough’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 through retrofitting council-owned homes, upgrading communal heating systems with heat pumps and implementing wide-scale energy monitoring schemes.

We spoke with Sophie McCombes and Mike Horne from Liverpool City Council. Sophie spent 15 years as an architect at different private sector organisations before joining the council in April 2024 as Development Manager and, later, Regeneration Manager in August 2024, where she remains. Mike, her manager, is Head of Regeneration – City Centre & KQ and has been with the council for much of his professional career following a brief start as a landscape architect in private practice.

They are both playing an important role in Liverpool City Council’s commitment to delivering new, affordable homes to address the city’s housing shortage. Their aim is to build 8,000 new homes, with 20% of these being affordable. They are also working on a series of development projects to bring forward economic growth, especially in the health and life-science sector in the City’s innovation district. The council is also committed to reaching net-zero emissions from its assets and activities by 2030.

With expertise and experience across the housing and regeneration sector, our interviewees are at the epicentre of an exciting transformation in their communities. With vast plans for development and regeneration, we wanted to explore how the addition of private sector expertise and insights has also helped with driving the council’s work forward.

Why make the career switch to local government?

Switching careers is a personal and professional decision that requires considerable thought. Though there are many reasons one may decide to enter the public sector, Iona and Sophie shared a similar reason – they both wanted to carry out high-impact work that positively impacts their communities.

Now three years into her career in Greenwich, Iona is proud that working in local government provides her with ‘the ability to have a positive impact in the city she lives’. She explained further, “The most rewarding thing is feeling like I’m having an on-the-ground impact.” She highlighted that this extrinsic motivation was crucial for her. “I would always want to make a positive impact out of the things I spend most of my life doing. You want your work to feel impactful.” It’s not just about work, it is about contributing to the public good.

Working in a high-impact environment has also been extremely rewarding for Sophie in Liverpool, who is similarly proud to be “part of an organisation that is ultimately serving the public good”.

“When I saw the job description, I thought it was really aligned with what I was interested in doing for work, which is ultimately to create great places for people and benefit local communities”, she explained.

For Sophie and Iona getting the opportunity to be on the frontline of housing and regeneration decision-making means they are in a genuine position to improve their communities and make positive impacts every day. This desire to make a difference and the sense of pride that comes with it certainly resonates with many others across the sector and is a large driver for empowering private sector skills to move into local government.

What are the big differences between private and public sector work?

The transition experience has shown Iona and Sophie the differences between public and private sector operations and presented learning opportunities for them both, particularly around the decision-making process in local government. After spending just under seven years in her previous role, Iona admits she was in an ‘engineering bubble’ that limited her from understanding the complexities around decision making in local government. She explained: “I wasn’t taking into account the residents, the politics and the way funding is administered in cycles”. Now she has a growing appreciation for the role decision makers play in juggling these responsibilities to best serve their communities.

Her experience so far has taught her that local government decisions are more complex than they seem. She suggested that those who are quick to critique local government decisions must try to understand the multitude of drivers and stakeholders involved in local government processes, as there will often be a good reason for the way things are.

Sophie too, having spent over fifteen years in the private sector as an architect, felt strongly about the misconceptions that exist around local government decision making. Despite the narrative, she believes the sector is full of hard-working people “making decisions at speed” in the context of limited resources and high financial pressures. “I think from the outside looking in there’s probably a perception that these decisions are slow in the making because the people aren’t working fast enough or hard enough. But I really don’t think that’s the case”, she said.

She also highlighted the democratic process and its implications on making decisions. “There’s a perception that decisions are slow because of people working slowly, but I think it’s just the mechanics of democracy that have to be that way to make it a fair process”, she overviewed.

Evidently, the transition from sectors has given Iona and Sophie fresh perspectives on how the local government operates but also required them to grapple with the sector’s unique characteristics. Being accountable to communities and the electorate creates responsibilities and layers that do not exist in the private sector.

What is the impact of recruiting private sector skills into local government?

For those already within local government, the arrival of talented individuals like Iona and Sophie brings an armoury of benefits. They have a range of transferable skills, fresh perspectives, and the ability to balance teams. A large part of the Public Practice aim is to encourage people to move from the private sector to the public sector to help improve built environment knowledge and capacity, particularly through sharing specialist design and technical skills.

Mike, a long-standing local government officer, believes that having people on the team with commercial backgrounds is a great asset and adds to ‘stronger teams going forward’. He is a big believer that the balance this provides is welcomed. “Having private sector experience embedded in the team has helped move projects forward knowing decisions are made based on relevant sector based knowledge”, he said. “It’s always good if we can have a really good balanced strong mix of skill sets in the team.”

For council teams looking to employ private-sector individuals, Jamie, another long-standing officer in the sector, encourages them to take the jump. He is also a believer that local government must become more adept at recognising the commercial and technical skills of those who have worked in the private sector and what vast benefits that can bring to the table. “Colleagues coming in from the private sector can challenge us in the right ways, and that’s a good challenge”, he remarks.

He also thinks councils like his in Greenwich can ‘learn to be a lot more slick’ with the introduction of private-sector talent. To reap the benefits of their skills, particularly in the context of budgetary pressures and resource constraints, he said, “I would really encourage local government to take risks because you don’t win unless you take them. It might work but it might not work entirely, either way we’re going to learn a huge amount.”

Jamie summarised, “We have tried to emphasise the fact there is more permeability between the public and private sector and as a public sector organisation we need to cherish that and celebrate it”. He highlighted, however, that there may still be some hesitance across local government to celebrate private sector qualities. Those coming in bring value-adding experience, which in the context of sector-wide issues, is well-received and maybe needed. For those already within the sector, the benefits to their teams and wider council operations are appreciated with the arrival of value-adding and highly motivated individuals.

Ultimately, it seems to be that among those within the sector already, there is definitely a growing appetite for blending private sector skills and efficiency with public sector service delivery and commitment to communities.

What are the key takeaways?

Throughout our conversations, Iona, Sophie, Jamie, and Mike continued to highlight not only the importance of fostering collaboration between the two sectors but also within local government itself. As the line between public and private continues to blur, collaboration will be key to tackling any challenges that lay ahead.

In the midst of this age-old debate, however, it is easy to forget that for those individuals making their move into the public sector, it remains a jump and a personal experience first and foremost. There are learning curves and cultural hills to climb which require consideration, time to overcome and support from their new colleagues.

From Iona’s perspective, she feels that it has been an enriching experience so far. With high praise, she said: “I’d hugely recommend it. I’ve learnt so much more in the last two and a half years at Greenwich than I think I would have learnt continuing the kind of career path that I was following before. Regardless of where you think your career will go later, spending time working in local government will give you valuable skills and experience for a future career in either the public or private sector”.

Finishing remarks

Personal stories from those making the leap between sectors can sometimes be forgotten, often overshadowed by ideological debates about sector divides. Admittedly, these personal stories remain hard to tell without considering the broader context – which is that ultimately, local government wants to be more efficient, dynamic and responsive and these recruitment decisions can offer a step in this direction. Equally, the local government sector has a lot to offer and can certainly provide opportunities for personal and professional growth. It gives people meaningful work to directly help shape public services and make a lasting impact.

It truly is a rewarding path for those ready to make the jump. Looking forward, we should continue to listen to the personal stories of the local government workforce. By doing this, we are better positioned to learn how others operate in the sector and learn from one another to support the future of local government, which, above all else, is about local people and communities.