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Senior management Stevenage BC has appointed Ash Ahmed as assistant director for housing development and Zayd Al-Jawad as head of planning and engineering. Mr Ahmed joins Stevenage from Basildon BC where he spent seven years developing and implementing the council's estate regeneration and housing development plans. He has been involved in public sector regeneration projects since 1999, working for county and district councils as well as housing associations. Zayd Al-Jawad, who has 15 years of experience in the planning sector, joins Stevenage from Southwark LBC where he spent four years as a planning manager. He will be responsible for leading on the council's local plan adoption and supporting new sustainable development. Ealing LBC has appointed Judith Finlay as new executive director for children, adult and public health. Ms Finlay was previously the council's director for children and families. She takes over the position on the council's corporate board from David Archibald, who retired in the summer. Ms Finlay began her career as a social worker and held various social work positions in other London boroughs before joining Ealing LBC as senior commissioning manager in 1998. She becomes the borough's statutory director for adult services and statutory director for children's services, which includes education and also has overall responsibility for public health. She is also a member of the governing body of Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group, the NHS organisation responsible for buying and managing health services for Ealing. Council leader Julian Bell, said: ‘Judith has worked in Ealing for 17 years and time and again has shown herself to be a very calm and confident leader. With her wealth of experience I am sure she is the very best person to guide this incredibly important department.' Ms Finlay, said: ‘Transferring responsibility for the public health agenda to councils has the potential to make a real difference to what we do because the health of our residents has a big impact on their need for other services. ‘I am committed to building on the work already under way to make sure all our services are working together as a whole to support the most vulnerable residents and provide the best opportunities for our children and young people. ‘I'm honoured to be appointed to this position and look forward to the challenges that this diverse role will inevitably bring.' Parliament Peter Aldous MP has been named as the new chairman of the County All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) taking over from Harry Smith. MP for Waveney, Suffolk, Mr Aldous was elected to Parliament in 2010 and prior to that, held the positions of both a Waveney DC councillor and Suffolk CC councillor, where he was deputy leader of the Conservative Group. The APPG met last week to be reconstituted for the remainder of this Parliamentary term, where first item on the agenda was Mr Aldous' election as the new chairman. The APPG, whose secretariat is provided by the County Councils Network (CCN) has a broad remit. Its role is to consider the issues and challenges faced by county areas and communities. Reflecting on his new position and aspirations for the future of CCN, Mr Aldous said: ‘One of my main priorities will be to seek an increase in the number of county MPs sitting on the APPG. It is important that as a group we represent the needs and concerns of our residents to influence government policy.' ‘Following on from the work of my predecessor, I will be continuing the campaign for counties to be given the same level of consideration as the big cities when it comes to devolution, economic growth, health and wellbeing issues and ensuring the best use of public money to improve local services.' The APPG will launch its next inquiry in early 2016. Westminster Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, has announced the line-up of his Shadow Cabinet ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government. They are: Jon Trickett (shadow secretary of state); Steve Reed (shadow local government minister; Liz McInnes; Lord (Roy) Kennedy and Lord (Jeremy) Beecham. In addition, John Healey is shadow housing minister, supported by Roberta Blackman-Woods, Teresa Pearce, Lord (Roy) Kennedy and Lord (Jeremy) Beecham. Shadow education secretary is Lucy Powell, while Heidi Alexander is shadow health secretary.

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