U.K. public sector IT: Is legacy software the real problem?
Legacy software has become synonymous with IT overspending and underperformance in the UK public sector. Reflecting on the numbers the press and internal advisories report, it’s easy to understand why. Agencies spend a combined £2.3B each year supporting their legacy solutions to simply keep the lights on, a figure representing almost half the government’s overall IT spend.
But there’s a fine point here that is easy to miss. Legacy software itself isn’t really the problem; transitioning away from these systems — the time, cost, and prioritisation of such projects — often leave organisations in legacy limbo. Several agencies have a requirement to keep these business-critical systems operational and have bought into the myth that their only choice is between vendor maintenance or decommissioning.
And yet reducing the large legacy software budget and freeing up resources, time, and money can allow the public sector to invest more strategically on digital transformation projects that will deliver significant benefits to both internal and external customers, as well as stakeholders.
The factors behind legacy software costs
Public sector IT systems are vast, interconnected, and dictated by bureaucratic processes that touch every part of the software’s lifecycle. Supported technologies like mainframes and the software and middleware that run on them manage and store data on a massive scale, making it difficult to find cost-effective alternatives that operate at the same capacity.
This inertia slows innovation, yet it also adds to the cost of keeping the current software in place. Maintenance and security become more costly to provide as necessary skills that support it vanish from the market, all while vendor support contract expenses rise. When migration isn’t technically or financially feasible, public institutions often think there is no other option but to shoulder the costs.
What role do vendors play in legacy software costs?
Many of the problems and costs of legacy software come from the tactics and prices large vendors impose as the vendor-buyer relationship matures. Support contract price increases, which tend to increase by exorbitant amounts the further the product is from implementation, are one such example. In the public sector and regulated industries like utilities, aggressive product bundling and license audit tactics can further create overspending.
Large vendors themselves have been accused of using their singular status as technology and support providers to create overcharges institutions feel they can’t avoid – for example, The Guardian reports one large company supporting UK emergency services charged over £1B in “excess profits […] above what would be expected” to continue access to a deprecated network.
What choices does the public sector have around its legacy software?
Many public sector agencies are comfortable maintaining and operating their legacy software day-to-day; outside support is more of an insurance policy or regulatory requirement. For these institutions, being able to counteract stiff support renewal cost increases might be all it takes to justify keeping legacy products.
In other cases, institutions might be more willing to keep their legacy software if the products supported ongoing modernisation efforts. Thanks to the skills gap, they might not be aware that the same products can often be modified for greater interoperability and performance. Third-party software maintenance providers can introduce changes primary vendors won’t be keen to suggest, extending the life of the software in question without hampering modernisation.
The public sector’s legacy software challenges are complex, but not unsolvable. Private industry’s role in helping resolve them is clear — provide options that go beyond the standard, increasingly pricey, primary vendor’s options.
Heather Cover-Kus
Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.
Ellie Huckle
Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.
Annie Collings
Annie is the Programme Manager for Cyber Resilience at techUK. She first joined as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023.
Austin Earl
Austin joined techUK’s Central Government team in March 2024 to launch a workstream within Education and EdTech.
Ella Gago-Brookes
Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.
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