UK taxman discovers low code doesn't mean low cost with £657M awards
- ID
- 15509
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 19 Aug 2026, 4:44 PM
- Fetched
- 19 Aug 2026, 5:31 PM
- Provider
- The Register
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.theregister.com/public-sector/2026/08/19/uk-taxman-discovers-low-code-doesnt-mean-low-cost-with-657m-awards/5288634
- Source URL
- https://www.theregister.com/headlines.atom
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 19 Aug 2026, 5:31 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersvibe_coderssaas_startup_founders
What happened
UK tax authority HMRC has awarded three low-code contracts worth up to £657 million to Atos (£78.2M), Cognizant (£360M), and Coforge (£219M) for build, configuration, DevOps, and support across Pega, ServiceNow, Microsoft Dynamics, and Power Platform. The awards come under the DALAS framework, whose Lot 4a was originally estimated at £700M and whose broader second phase was valued at £2.8 billion, as HMRC struggles with one of the UK's largest and most complex legacy IT estates.
Why it matters
If you are pitching low-code as a cost-saver to clients or your own board, this is a concrete counterexample: a government with massive scale still needed £657M in specialist services just to build, configure, and maintain low-code platforms. Factor in ongoing vendor lock-in and consultancy costs when evaluating Pega, ServiceNow, or Power Platform versus custom builds—low-code shifts spend from developers to integrators, it doesn't eliminate it.
Discussion angle
When does low-code actually save money versus just relocating the cost from in-house developers to external consultancy? Use the HMRC numbers as a benchmark: £657M across three suppliers for Pega/ServiceNow/Dynamics/Power Platform support over 3-5 years.