Dr Mariela de Amstalden, Dr Anna Jackman and Professor Michael Lewis explore how Local Government across England are using drones, sharing the benefits they’re seeing and the challenges they face in initiating and scaling operations.
From aerial inspection to policing, drones are increasingly being used across commercial and civil applications as tools for aerial data gathering, carrying and transport. Drones, the UK Government says, “present a significant and exciting opportunity for the UK”. They are regularly championed as enabling the carrying out of tasks “faster, safer, cheaper and with less impact on the environment than traditional methods”. This view is reinforced through ongoing initiatives such as Future Flight – pursuing the “industrialisation of emerging aviation technologies” including drones in the UK, as well as recent funding announcements supporting the development of “drone pathways for industry” and the delivery of a “regulatory programme to enable drones to fly beyond visual line of sight”.
Yet, while ambitions for growing and scaled drone deployment continue, with the UK Government hoping that “by 2030 commercial drones will be commonplace in… a way that safely benefits the economy and wider society”, critical questions have nonetheless been raised about the next steps needed to translate drone trials and small-scale initiatives to more regular and routine operations.
Drone use in Local Government
In our newly launched report, From ambition to action: Insights into drone use by Local Government in England, we explore Local Government as active yet often under-considered drone users. Developing the first detailed investigation of Local Government drone use in England, our research explores drones in action, focusing on real-world use cases rather than abstract or potential applications. Through interviews with Local Government drone users spanning different use cases and levels of experience, the research focused on reported benefits, drivers, and barriers to adoption and scaling.
Benefits
Local Governments show notable capability as domestic service providers. Use cases vary – in some councils, drones support core statutory functions (such as asset inspection and enforcement) while for others drone usage remains more ad hoc. Nonetheless, Local Government participants collectively and consistently reported clear safety, access, and data benefits, spanning improved worker safety, better access to remote sites, and more robust data collection. Time and cost savings were also reported, though benefits had to be considered alongside flight planning and lifecycle costs.
Practices and processes
Our research also looked at how Local Government were using drones, focusing on key practices and processes:
- When getting started, individual drone champions within councils were often more of a factor than organisational enthusiasm. However motivated, reliance on an individual also revealed vulnerabilities, from capacity to limitations accompanying a lack of wider support. Further attention was requested to both how drone activities are funded and delivered (e.g. in-house vs. outsourced), and whether funding leads to lasting capacity or simply short-term activity.
- There was widespread awareness of data protection processes. Interestingly, lessons from CCTV codes of practice were mentioned, and there was generally sophisticated discussions of the practical challenges and considerations around around data management and security.
- The majority chose to fly drones weighing less than 250g, citing regulatory requirements (e.g. open category) as key to such decisions. Others also emphasised the importance of considering the software and expertise required to process and make drone data useful.
Barriers to adoption and scaling
While local government drone use seems to be growing organically, it also remains fragmented. Barriers to wider and scaled adoption include:
- Scepticism from senior leaders around the efficacy and reliability of drones.
- Savings from drone use are hard to account for as they don’t sit cleanly in one budget.
- A lack of formal evidence means peer benchmarking, or comparison with other councils, is difficult. Such comparative data could be a powerful mechanism to encourage adoption, scaling and the idea that drone capability should be seen as a standard part of local government.
Next steps
Our research highlights a series of key implications for further developing drone practice:
- Shift from individual enthusiasm to organisational capability: More work is needed to support committed individuals and to integrate drone use within formal structures (e.g. mandated for specific services). This includes the development of corporate and use case centred policies, wider training pathways and designated roles to ensure continuity and oversight.
- Time management and operational capacity: Councils must acknowledge that time, not just budget, is a key constraint. As business cases are upgraded, this should include better workload integration, prioritisation strategies, and opportunities to redistribute the benefits of drone efficiencies.
- Clarity around the role of drones: Councils must systematically evaluate whether drones replace existing methods, enhance current work, or open up entirely new capabilities, with attention to how use cases vary by local context. These distinctions should then be embedded into more detailed cost–benefit cases and operational planning.
- Engage with the local community: While participating local authorities shared no evidence of public discontent, in light of national research examining public concerns, councils should be proactive about transparency and prepare for potential future contestation. Future research could extend general national surveys by studying drone legitimacy in specific local contexts, supporting the identification of early warning signs and the building of effective mitigation strategies.
As the UK Government works towards its 2030 vision of drones becoming commonplace across the economy, drone users in Local Government are already showing what’s possible. However, moving from today’s fragmented, individual champion-led initiatives to the systematic, scaled deployment needed to meet the ambitious timeline will require addressing the barriers identified in this research. Success will depend on transforming drone use from enthusiast-driven projects into embedded organisational capabilities, supported by clear policies, adequate training and genuine buy-in from leaders. Only then can drones deliver on promises related to Local Government services and in support of communities across the country.
Our report is freely accessible here: de Amstalden, M., Jackman, A., Lewis, M. (2025) From ambition to action: Insights into drone use by Local Government in England.
About the authors:
Mariela de Amstalden is Visiting Fellow in Law at the University of Cambridge
Anna Jackman is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Reading
Michael Lewis is a Professor of Operations and Supply Management at the University of Bath
This work was supported by Graham Brown at ARPAS-UK.
Cover photo by Harrison Kugler on Unsplash