Lambeth left hanging on the phone: £225k stop-gap telecoms deal signed after council fails to line up replacement in time
Lambeth Council has quietly approved a £225,000 interim contract to keep its borough-wide phone system running after the existing deal expired at the end of January — with the decision …
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Lambeth Council has quietly approved a £225,000 interim contract to keep its borough-wide phone system running after the existing deal expired at the end of January — with the decision taken without appearing on the council’s Forward Plan of upcoming decisions.
An officer decision report published this week shows the council has awarded a 12-month contract worth £225,383.60 to its existing supplier, Charterhouse Voice and Data, to continue providing hosted IP telephony services until January 2027.
The system underpins a wide range of council activity, including resident contact services, safeguarding, emergency response and internal communications. Without the contract, the report warns there would be a risk of “service interruption” affecting critical operations across the borough.
The council’s previous telephony contract expired on 31 January 2026 and had no extension options available, leaving officers needing to secure a replacement arrangement to keep services running.
Rather than running a full procurement exercise, Lambeth has directly awarded the contract to the incumbent supplier via a Crown Commercial Service framework, citing the need for service continuity and the risks associated with switching providers for a short-term arrangement.
The council says the one-year deal is intended as a temporary measure while it carries out a wider “Customer Experience review” examining how residents interact with council services.
Officers say the results of that review will help determine the requirements for a future long-term communications system covering both unified communications and the council’s contact centre.
However, the decision raises questions about planning and oversight. Despite the value of the contract and its importance to council operations, the report confirms that the decision did not appear on Lambeth’s Forward Plan, the mechanism normally used to notify councillors and the public about significant upcoming decisions.
The report states that the £225,383 contract will be funded from existing technology budgets and represents a continuation of current services rather than a change to the council’s communications infrastructure.
Officers claim the interim arrangement will provide “time and stability” for Lambeth to complete its strategic review and carry out a future competitive procurement for a longer-term communications system.
But the situation means that a core element of the council’s digital infrastructure — used across services and relied on by residents contacting the council — is now operating under a temporary contract while the long-term solution is worked out.
Taken together, the timeline suggests the council has been scrambling to catch up. The expiry date of the previous contract was known well in advance, yet a replacement system was not ready in time, leaving Lambeth to approve a stop-gap deal to keep the phones running while it works out what to do next.
