Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Best value definition

What does Best value mean? Best value describes the expectation that local authorities continually improve how they exercise their functions, balancing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery and decision-making. In England, it is a statutory duty under Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1999, applying to “best value authorities” (local authorities and certain other public bodies). Authorities must make arrangements to secure continuous improvement, have regard to the three Es and relevant statutory Best Value guidance, and consult service users. Compliance is overseen through inspection and potential intervention by the Secretary of State; non‑compliance can give rise to judicial review and central...

Best Value Duty in English Local Government: Outsourcing, consultation, guidance (2015/2024), procurement interface, inspections, interventions and judicial review

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Practice notes

What is the best value duty?

The best value duty (BVD) obliges a local government organisation to show that it has arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way it exercises its functions, in other words, how it delivers its work. In practice, this typically covers how the authority manages core responsibilities such as:

balancing its budget
providing statutory services, including adult social care and children’s services

The BVD was created by the Local Government Act 1999 (LGA 1999). That Act remains the governing legislation, though it has been substantially amended, particularly by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (LGPIHA 2007).

Much of the detail on what BVD is and how it should be applied in practice is set out not in the LGA 1999 itself but in statutory guidance, which is issued from time to time under section 26 of that Act.

Best value replaced compulsory competitive tendering (CCT), which required local authorities in England and Wales to expose prescribed services to competitive tender in specified circumstances and allowed in-house delivery only where the internal team won the tender. Unlike CCT, best value is not directly concerned with outsourcing...

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Rachel Barrett

Cloisters

Rachel Barrett is a barrister at Cloisters specialising in employment, discrimination, human rights, mental health, clinical negligence and personal injury law....

Helena Ifeka

Cloisters

Helena has a busy practice, mainly in employment law, personal injury and public law. She is a strong trial advocate who in the past year has appeared in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (on her own) as well as the Central Arbitration Committee. Helena worked as a Legal Officer for the Baptist Union for one year while completing her BPTC, where she advised on property and trust law, GDPR, and assisted in preparation for the IICSA enquiry into child protection in religious organisations. Before retraining in law, for twelve years, Helena ran business transformation programmes and worked as an IT and management consultant at C-level for clients in the private and public sectors. ...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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