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News Release from: SEEDA, South East England Devt. Agency
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial Team on 25 July 2007

SEEDA meeting the challenge of
sustainability

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South East England Development Agency has appointed Oona Muirhead CBE as the Executive Director of its new Sustainable Prosperity directorate.

The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has appointed Oona Muirhead CBE as the Executive Director of its new Sustainable Prosperity directorate, leading the Agency's actions to further one of its core objectives: reducing the region's ecological footprint Oona Muirhead has a strong background in strategic policy development, managing and implementing change, and a track record of working with and influencing key decision-makers within and outside government

She joins SEEDA in August from her current post as Director of the Land Use Project at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) where she has been responsible for leading the development of a long-term policy framework for land use and land management in England.

Prior to this, Oona was Director of Strategy and Communications at the Local Government Association (LGA), where she was responsible for corporate strategy development, lobbying and external affairs.

During this time she devised and negotiated cross-party agreement to a new vision for local government.

Set out in the LGA's publication "Closer to People and Places", this sees local authorities taking on a new role: the "leadership of place".

Working with the CBI and national think-tanks, she then developed specific proposals for devolving powers and policy functions to local government in relation to areas such as transport, planning, housing, skills and worklessness.

Many of these ideas were reflected in the Local Government White Paper in 2006.

Welcoming the appointment, SEEDA Chief Executive Pam Alexander said: "I am delighted that Oona Muirhead will be joining SEEDA and driving forward the work of our new Sustainable Prosperity team, working closely with our partners across the region to meet the challenges of the Implementation Plan for the groundbreaking Regional Economic Strategy (RES) 2006-2016.

"The RES targets for sustainable consumption and production, climate change and renewable energy, biodiversity and green infrastructure, and sustainable communities, are exciting and challenging for SEEDA and our partners.

Oona has a strong understanding of the sustainability agenda at national, regional and local levels, and I look forward to working with her to meet these challenges".

Oona Muirhead commented: "I feel very privileged to be coming to lead this exciting agenda for the South East.

My time in the Local Government Association showed me how much can be achieved by partners across the public, private and third sectors working closely together at the regional and local level.

I want us to improve the quality of life for everyone living, working and doing business in the South East, by putting the environment and communities at the heart of our actions to drive up prosperity.".

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