Community Right to Challenge

Under the Localism Act, voluntary and community bodies, local authority employees who wish to form a mutual organisation, and parish councils can express an interest in running a local authority service.

The authority must consider expressions of interest and, where they accept them, then go on to run a procurement exercise for the service.

The Right to Challenge gives local groups with good ideas about how services could be run differently or better the opportunity to have a fair hearing, and if successful in their initial expression of interest, to bid to run the service themselves as part of the procurement process

Who can make a challenge 

To submit an expression of interest, a ‘relevant body’ or group must be a:

• voluntary or community body
• body of persons or trust that is established for charitable purposes only
• parish council
• group of two or more employees of the council.

You must represent our community in different ways, whether you are made up of members of the community, work in – or for the benefit of – the community, or already deliver services for the community. 

It gives local groups with good ideas about how services could be run differently or better the opportunity to have a fair hearing.

How to challenge

You can submit an expression of interest from Tuesday 1 September to Wednesday 30 September 2026. Challenges are for the financial year 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2028.

The statutory guidance asks for an expression of interest to include:

• what service you are expressing an interest in and what area it covers
• information on financial resources
• evidence of capability to provide, or help provide, the service
• how you will promote and improve social, economic or environmental wellbeing
• how you will meet service user’s needs.

You must ensure you provide adequate and accurate information for us to make a decision. Inadequate or inaccurate information may lead to us rejecting your expression of interest.

If you need to provide more information, attach any supplementary documents to the form or email them to Community.Challenge@islington.gov.uk. Make sure you refer to the attached documents in the right answer on the form.

Download and fill in the expression of interest

If you have a question about any part of the form, email Community.Challenge@islington.gov.uk.

What happens next

Once we receive your expression of interest, we will let you know via email that it has been received. A panel will then read and review your expression of interest, to see if it meets the criteria.

When all the expressions of interest have been reviewed by the panel they send a report to the council executive with recommendations that can include:

• accepting or rejecting the expression of interest
• suggesting a change or modification to the expression of interest
• asking for more information
• asking for more time to look into the expression of interest

The panel will contact you to tell you about their decision in writing. The decision may be:

• we accept your expression of interest and tell you what will happen next with the procurement process
• you get a proposal for a change or modification, which you can then accept or reject
• we reject your expression of interest and we will tell you why

If you have any questions, email: Community.Challenge@islington.gov.uk. 

More information

For more information on Community Right to Challenge (Localism Act 2011), read more on the GOV.UK page for Community Right to Challenge;

Grants for taking over local services

There are grants available to community groups looking to take over local services. These are available nationally (not run by Islington).