Concrete Walls and Local Government Reorganisation: What Town Planning Really Needs

Anyone familiar with brutalist Hove Town Hall will know its thick, reinforced concrete walls. John Wells-Thorpe designed the building to be significantly taller- intended to serve as the future administrative headquarters of a new Brighton & Mid-Sussex authority proposed in the 1969 Radcliffe-Maud Report, later reshaped into the 1972 Local Government Act. That report envisioned sweeping reform: replacing parish, district and county councils with large unitary authorities with vast responsibilities, including town planning. Anyone following today’s local government reorganisation debates will feel a distinct sense of déjà vu.

It isn’t difficult to imagine a modern-day scene straight out of Yes, Minister. A senior civil servant dusts down the Radcliffe-Maud Report in the aftermath of the general election in July 2024. Hoping they will keep their eager minister busy with the tome, they portray Local Government Reorganisation as the long-delayed completion of a revolution first conceived under Harold Wilson. What the civil servant doesn’t have to consider of course was that Wilson’s vision was brought to an abrupt end by the 1970 general election, which swept Ted Heath to power with a commitment to a two-tier system of counties and districts — the structure we still operate today. Back then, the abolition of councils and the dilution of local democracy was politically harmful. It would appear not much has changed.

Although it’s been dubbed a devolution, many councillors and their constituents experience a top-down process: mega-councils that have never won a public mandate, ever-changing rules and goalposts. For those councils plucky enough to submit local plans that prioritise perceived local need not central government spreadsheets, ministerial slap downs.

Local Government Reorganisation has been revived with no manifesto mandate which means the appetite of backbench MPs was never guaranteed, when Ministers are increasingly in the cross hairs of doom loop polling. A compressed timetable will see local councils thrown into last minute, costly planning for the elections. Astonishingly, elections appear to have been organised, cancelled and then re-scheduled without due legal advice. Then there’s the credibility kicking that both central and local government take in the process.

It can be no surprise that many anticipate that the outcome of the council elections in just 10 weeks could see Devolution proposals further maimed, if not killed off altogether.

Councillors are offered half-baked reassurances about future powers while councils across England face a funding gap of £4 billion. The number of councils facing a bankruptcy notice (Section 114) from government continues to rise. Planning departments, in particular, are dangerously exposed. Only one in ten is fully staffed. How can we talk seriously about growth, housing delivery, or infrastructure when the teams shaping places are skeletal?

Well-resourced planning departments need to be understood as the backbone of sustainable development. Skilled planners retained for the long term provide consistency, expertise, and institutional memory that prevents costly mistakes. Without them, we are left with reactive decision-making and, piecemeal, or worse, stunted local economic growth.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the structural failures of the current system. The catastrophic failure of the Duty to Cooperate has left councils struggling to plan strategically across boundaries. The country’s need for new transport, water and energy infrastructure- so evidently lacking from the past twenty years- demand regional coordination. As much housing and local economic growth.

I have long called for and welcome the revival of Regional Spatial Strategies, or Designated Strategic Planning Authorities as we’re now calling them. These England-wide plans coordinate housing, infrastructure, and economic growth across multiple local authorities and are needed to address this gap. Crucially, these mechanisms don’t require sweeping devolution settlements or elected mayors to function. They require political will and administrative competence. Strategic planning done well will help councils and their elected representatives rise to future collective challenges.

Hove Town Hall’s concrete walls were designed to withstand the literal and metaphorical weight of new local government. Our local planning system, however, cannot withstand continued underinvestment and top-down restructuring disguised as reform. If we want homes built, infrastructure delivered, and communities shaped thoughtfully rather than accidentally, we must prioritise capacity, legitimacy, and regional cooperation.

At a time when democratic distance feels like it is widening, the Community Communications Partnership uses the 250 years of experience of our team in local government to close the gap — turning consultation into conversation and residents into participants, not bystanders.