Deferring Website Subscriptions

As part of our Parish Online Websites service, we encountered many local councils that were facing unexpected costs due to their current supplier of their website changing their pricing model.

The supplier had a free tier of their website service so when they announced they were changing to a paid-only model, that left many councils in a tricky situation. Firstly, they'd have to find money that was unbudgeted for the year. Secondly, they'd have to get approval for new expenditure within just a few months.

Whilst it's understandable that a supplier can't provide a free service forever, it was a bit naughty to suddenly switch to a paid model mid-way through a financial year. So, that's where we came in.

We offered to any council stuck in this situation to be able to switch to our service for free and only have to start paying the subscription in the 2024-25 financial year. That essentially gave councils 6 months free and time to plan their budgets for 2024-25. It also gave them an upgrade. Our service has a GOV.UK domain name built in, giving them a professional online presence, and our websites have the latest security features (something very lacking in the previous supplier's offering).

Social Value Outcome

We felt this was an important offer to make to councils as their website and email capabilities are a critical aspect of keeping in touch with their local community. And disruption can be damaging. So, we believe that there's a strong social benefit to our actions, as well as the financial benefits.

The typical one-off savings were around £150 for each council, and ongoing savings of around another £150 each.