The appointment of Jeremy Heywood to the new post of Permanent Secretary, 10 Downing Street, is partly an admission of the problems that beset Gordon Brown last autumn. Some of them, such as Northern Rock and capital gains tax, are being addressed. The Brown inner circle was convinced that a firmer grip was needed at the centre.

Mr Heywood is the ultimate Whitehall fixer. Whenever there has been a tricky policy issue over the past dozen years he has usually been involved. Now he has moved from running domestic policy in the Cabinet Office to become the most senior civil servant to run the Prime Minister’s office.

When Mr Brown took over less than seven months ago he sought to distance himself from Tony Blair’s alleged presidentialism and “sofa” style of government. Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, sought to revive the role of the Cabinet Office in coordinating policy. However, whenever prime ministers have been in trouble in the past they have considered strengthening the No 10 operation. That was true of the Thatcher, Major and Blair premierships. It has happened faster under Mr Brown, and creating a permanent secretary will be seen as a step towards setting up a prime minister’s department, the title that prime ministers hate to use.

Mr Heywood’s appointment complements that of Stephen Carter two weeks ago as chief of strategy and chief special adviser. The two will work closely together.

Mr Heywood, 46, has had a glittering career in the Treasury and Downing Street, as well as a financially rewarding four years at Morgan Stanley until last May. He has a reputation as the man to sort out problems, from the reorganisation of the Treasury in the mid1990s to managing the Blair-Brown relationship when he was principal private secretary in No 10 from 1999 until 2003. He worked very closely with Ed Balls when he was Mr Brown’s chief adviser. So it is wrong to see him as Mr Blair’s man, or, now, Mr Brown’s. Both admire him.

As significant is the return to the Treasury of Tom Scholar, 39. He has been chief of staff and principal private secretary in Downing Street since June. This was apparently intended as a transitional appointment to handle Mr Brown’s arrival at No 10.

Alistair Darling and Nick Macpherson, the Treasury Permanent Secretary, have felt that its global and domestic financial markets side needs strengthening in view of the current turbulence. Mr Scholar was British director of the IMF and World Bank in Washington from 2001 until last year, and before that a key official setting up the post1997 system of financial regulation. So he will become managing director, international and finance.

The changes will beef up No 10 and the Treasury. Their success will depend not just on Mr Heywood and how he works with Mr Carter, but also, crucially, on Mr Brown. He has been in confident form since the new year, notably on his trip to China and India. But translating that into decisiveness is all about him, not civil servants, however talented and capable.

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