Sir Michael Pitt has been appointed as the second chair of the Legal Services Board, the lord chancellor announced today. Pitt, 65, will replace David Edmonds, who was appointed inaugural chair in May 2008.

He will take up the £63,000 a year three-year appointment from 1 May. The appointment, made in consultation with the lord chief justice, requires the chair to work for at least 70 days a year.

Pitt is a former local authority chief executive and civil servant and currently chairs the Infrastructure Planning Commission. He has served as chief executives for Cheshire County Council and Kent County Council and was the national president of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

From 2006 to 2009 he was chair of the South West Strategic Health Authority. Pitt has led a range of other appointments, including the chairmanship of the General Medical Council’s National Validation Programme Board. He began his career as a civil servant working in motorway design and construction in the early 1970s.

Pitt was knighted in 2005 for services to local government.