Written by Isabel Swinswood, Marketing and Communications Lead at Mondrem Group
For many councils, they will have heard today about which of the proposals for Local Government Reorganisation have been accepted. And it feels like another challenge to navigate. More shifting sands. Another programme. Another deadline. Another layer of uncertainty. But what if we're looking at it the wrong way? What if Local Government Reorganisation is one of the biggest opportunities planning services have had in decades? Not because change is easy but because it gives us permission to ask questions that often get ignored.
If we were designing this service today, would we build it like this?
Every planning service has strengths. Every planning service has frustrations. Most planning teams are working incredibly hard, most planning teams are full of dedicated professionals who want to do a good job. People care deeply about delivering good outcomes for their communities. They want to provide a good service. They want to support applicants, residents and councillors. They want to make planning better. Yet many services are carrying challenges that have built up over years.
High levels of work in progress.
Backlogs.
Processes that no longer reflect how people actually work.
Different ways of doing the same task.
Unclear roles and responsibilities.
Limited visibility of demand and capacity.
Teams that are constantly firefighting instead of improving.
None of these challenges exist because people aren't trying hard enough. They exist because services have evolved over time, often responding to immediate pressures rather than being intentionally designed.
Local Government Reorganisation creates a rare opportunity to pause and ask whether those ways of working still make sense.
Don't merge problems. Design better services.
One of the biggest risks with Local Government Reorganisation is that existing problems simply get combined.
Two backlogs become one.
Different processes continue side by side.
Different cultures remain separate.
Technology gets merged but ways of working don't.
Instead of creating a stronger organisation, we risk creating a larger version of the same challenges, but it doesn't have to be that way.
This is a chance to build a planning service around what people actually need today.
A service with clear priorities, shared ways of working, better visibility of workload, capacity that matches demand, leaders who understand where pressure is building before it becomes a crisis. Most importantly, a service where people feel supported to do their best work. If your service is struggling, this is your opportunity.
It takes courage to say a service isn't where you want it to be but recognising challenges isn't a weakness - it's leadership.
If your planning service is carrying longstanding issues, now is the time to tackle them - not because someone is forcing change but because you have a unique opportunity to influence what comes next.
The decisions being made today will shape planning services for years to come. Future colleagues won't remember how difficult the transition was, they'll remember the service they inherited. The best position to start from is understanding. Before redesigning structures, changing systems or combining teams, it's worth understanding what's really happening.
Where is work getting stuck?
What creates unnecessary pressure?
Which processes genuinely add value?
Where are people spending their time?
What helps good performance, and what gets in the way?
Without that shared understanding, it's easy to redesign an organisation without improving the experience of the people working within it.
The time is now. Local Government Reorganisation shouldn't just be about creating bigger organisations. It should be about creating better ones.
Planning services that are more resilient.
More sustainable.
More consistent.
Better for customers.
And better for the people delivering them every day.
The councils that will gain the most from Local Government Reorganisation won't necessarily be those with the biggest budgets or the newest technology; they'll be the ones willing to ask difficult questions, understand what's really happening, and use this moment to build a service fit for the future.
The opportunity won't last forever.
The conversations are happening now.
The decisions are being made now.
If you've ever thought, "If only we had the chance to design this properly," that chance has arrived.
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