The DCLG has appointed Helen Edwards, a senior Ministry of Justice (MoJ) civil servant as its director-general for localism in succession to David Prout, who left the department to head up the High Speed 2 rail programme at the start of the year.

Ms Edwards, who was director-general for criminal justice at the MoJ, will also take on the role of deputy permanent secretary.

Originally trained as a social worker for East Sussex CC, Ms Edwards enjoyed an 18-year career working with crime reduction charity Nacro, where she rose to become chief executive.

Since joining the civil service in 2002, Ms Edwards has served as director-general of the Home Office's communities group and was chief executive of the National Offender Management Service.

‘I welcome the opportunity to take forward the localism agenda and to renew my relationship with those working in local government and in the voluntary and community sector as well as building relationships more widely,' Ms Edwards said.

DCLG permanent secretary, and head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake said: ‘I'm absolutely delighted that Helen is joining DCLG. She brings a wealth of experience at senior level and has worked with both local government and the voluntary and community sector in her career.

‘She will be a great addition to the Department. I'd like to thank Simon Ridley for the excellent job he has done.'