The users, and the IT team wanted the upgrade. Cost cutting management who declined to understand the risks refused it
Yeah... and if the so called "cost cutting" management stopped letting themselves be screwed by the same old set of suppliers, perhaps they would start being presented by quotes that were more affordable.
Its always the same story with UK government IT... they pay
way over the odds for a system, the development and deployment of which overruns in both time and budget and is sadly lacking in the features they actually need.
Because they paid over the odds for it in the fist place, it takes many years to adequately amortise the expenses.