England’s regional development agencies have lost 424  staff in total since the general election in May, Public Property UK can reveal.
The bodies, which are due to be abolished by April 2012 and employ around 2,500 staff, have recently finished a first wave of voluntary redundancies and are set to cut …

Birmingham City Council is set lose 79 full-time posts as it merges its planning and regeneration departments into a single team.
Its plan will mean cutting the team by one third, and setting up smaller planning and regeneration teams based in different areas across the city. It means all staff in …

Trudi Elliot has been appointed as chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Elliot joins the RTPI from the now-abolished Government Office for the West Midlands, where she has been director since 2006. She will take up the position from 4 January 2011.
Elliot said: “These are challenging times for …

John Richards has been appointed as the non-executive chairman of the Torbay Development Agency.
Richards is the former chief executive of Hammerson and is currently president of the British Property Federation.
Richards said: “My roots are here in the West Country, and this is the perfect chance for me to ‘put something …

Mary Harpley has been appointed as chief executive of the London Borough of Hounslow.
Harpley, who is currently chief executive of Cherwell District Council, replaces interim chief executive Michael Frater.
Prior to joining Cherwell, Mary was a director of regional development agency Advantage West Midlands and before that, a senior consultant with …

North West Development Agency chief executive Steven Broomhead is to step down from his post.
Broomhead, who was appointed in 2003 to the regional development agency (RDA), said today that he would take early retirement. He is the latest in a string of high profile staff members to leave RDAs, which …

Pat Ritchie has today been appointed as interim chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).
Ritchie is the HCA’s current director for the north-east and will take over from Sir Bob Kerslake as chief executive on 1 November.
Kerslake is moving to the Department for Communities and Local Government, where …

The City of London Corporation has appointed Nicholas Gill and Peter Young as property directors.
Gill has been appointed as investment properties director and will be responsible for the strategic direction and performance management of the City of London Corporation’s investment property portfolio.
He joins after 21 years at ING Real Estate …

The City of London Corporation today elected Alderman Michael Bear as its 683rd Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Bear, who is regeneration director at Hammerson and managing director of Balfour Beatty Property, will begin in the post on 12 November.
He served as sheriff of the City in 2007-08 and …

City of York Council has appointed Bob Sydes as heritage renaissance officer to its new ‘renaissance’ team.
Sydes will work with lead architect Guy Hanson and council officers to maximise the economic impact of development in the city and develop a co-ordinated approach to long-term planning in York (pictured). His role …