The new chief of Brighton and Hove Council plans a high-level shake-up to make it more efficient.

David Panter, who arrived last month, has written a letter to all 7,000 Brighton and Hove City Council workers.

He has also approached the Cabinet, the ruling Labour group and the opposition Tories.

He is abolishing the strategic management board, which contained the main departments, and replacing it with an extended management team.

This will contain the main directors plus four other officials: human resources director Bill Brown; communications director Tony Miller; chief finance officer Chris Taylor; and acting city solicitor Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis.

Mr Panter said: "This new team will work as equals, regardless of the size of department they manage or their salary. The aim is to work collectively and creatively to solve problems."

He will also appoint environment director Alan McCarthy as deputy chief executive and change his job to director of corporate services.

This will work out strategies and will include finance, human resources and best value reviews.

Education director David Hawker will be put in charge of children and young people's services.

This will be mainly a merger between education and the children's services from social care and health but adult learning will go to the culture department.

Sarah Tanburn will remain in charge of culture and regeneration but will also work on housing and homelessness.

He said this would recognise the links between housing, jobs and the local economy.

He added: "We need to do some significant work on developing affordable housing."

Resources director Paul Hart will be put in charge of city services, bringing together all the council services that deal directly with residents and customers.

This will include neighbourhood services, advice centres, revenues and benefits, environmental health, housing repairs, trading standards and some of the key infrastructure needed for these services, such as building maintenance.

Social care and health director Allan Bowman will be in charge of adult social care as the child side is going over to David Hawker.

Jenny Rowlands will be in charge of environment, which will include open spaces and transport.

Mr Panter said: "This directorship brings together functions like community safety and street lighting, which we know is one of the key services for improving residents' sense of well-being and safety."

He said there would be consultation with trade unions over the changes.

Mr Panter said the council should not shy away from the serious problems of overspending it faces.

He added: "We are doing everything possible to bring down our levels of overspend while protecting the front line services our residents rely upon."

Opposition Tory leader Brian Oxley broadly welcomed the changes and said it was good the chief finance officer was joining the management team as he would encourage lower spending.