Local government should beware of using reorganisation solely to ‘redesign the same things on a different scale', a sector leader has said.

Deputy chief executive of Test Valley BC in Hampshire Salena Mulhere told the panel session at New Local's Stronger Things festival that the sector needed to ‘not lose itself in the organisational mire about who sits with who and who does what'.

She added: ‘I think the real opportunity is not to start with the organisational design. The real chance exists to say, what do we want local authorities and local councils to be? What would an organisation here look like if it was about empowering people?'

Mulhere said this should happen ‘up from communities, from place, from neighborhoods, and say "how would you design a council and an organisation that exists to empower people in place"'?

She added: ‘If we miss this opportunity, we're just going to recreate the challenges that we've got now, and we are [just] going to design slightly different boundaries, slightly different councils with a slightly different look and feel.'

Councils in Hampshire are required to submit final reorganisation proposals by the end of September. it is believed the majority of the districts support the creation of four mainland unitaries, each with a population of between 350,000 and 400,000.

Asked how councils could engage meaningfully with residents on what they want from local authorities in the future, Mulhere added: ‘In terms of engagement at this point, it has to be to empower the community in place, to take the things we've heard [At Stronger Things] today and say this is what people want local government to look at.

‘Once we get to the point of everyone's discussion about the lines on the map, then we have to put our best case forward. So I know where I work [in Hampshire], there were differences of opinion [on reorganisation], but fundamentally we - most of our partners, I think - agree. There's an opportunity here to work together in place, to redesign local government to better meet local people's needs.'

‘Once we get past the September deadline, we'll put it in what we think the lines on the map should look like, and then we do the public consultation and then make a decision taking into account that consultation.

‘Once we get to that point, we need to have elected and professional leaders who recognise the opportunity to redefine local government and to involve communities, partners and stakeholders from that point.

‘So you focus on the redesign of the future organisation from that perspective, not just "these are the 10 different bits that I now have to squash into one organization, 52 buildings and 376, different services by that day".'

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