Power, Policy and Co-ordination in Law Reform: a Civil Servant and Town Planning Law, 1929–1930

The process of turning policy into legislation has been the subject of intense debates with some emphasising 'pressure groups', some pointing to Members of Parliament and others stressing the importance of civil servants with their own strong beliefs. This article argues that a particular type of civil service role has not been explored: we need to look at the civil servant who co-ordinates the process of reform. He or she starts with no particular commitment but seeks to provide a framework for legislation which can respond to contrasting and, on some occasions, even mutually inconsistent ideas. Co-ordination is in itself a form of power, and its significance can be seen in the compromises and gaps which are often found in government legislation and which are frequently the product of the co-ordinating role with its search for some minimal level of agreement and 'workable' drafts. The case-study for this analysis of law-making is the strained attempt to reform planning law in the years 1929–1932 in such a way as to make the law an instrument for preserving the countryside and improving housing and city conditions. It was a major attempt at social engineering and highly contentious for contemporaries. It is the essence of this type of law-reform that it simultaneously changes past law and, because it is an administratively co-ordinated compromise, it also produces problems which demand further reform within a few years.