A new broom at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CAPCA) is sweeping clean with the appointment of a £170,000- £200,000 a year chief executive.

Mayor Dr Nik Johnson has secured unanimous agreement from a cross party appointments panel to go outside of CAPCA to find the right candidate.

It will mean joint chief executives John Hill and Kim Sawyer giving up their shared post in the autumn.

CAPCA says the appointment will be announced publicly at the end of the month but the successful candidate has asked not to be named for now.

“The preferred candidate has asked (for reasons relating to their staff-communication within their current organisation) that their name be maintained as confidential until the day of the Combined Authority Board,” says a CAPCA report.

“The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in publishing the appendices”

The report says Penna plc were appointed as recruitment consultants.

They were “tasked to identify a representative diverse pool of appropriately experienced and talented individuals capable of leading the Combined Authority and to secure their interest in the post”.

In total 33 applications were received.

Penna conducted an initial sifting of applications and presented these to a longlist panel.

From these seven candidates were longlisted and interviewed to test the technical competence of each candidate to carry out the role of a Combined Authority CEO.

These interviews were conducted by Penna and a technical assessor and an interview report was written and presented to the shortlist panel.

The outcome was that four candidates were presented to the employment committee interviewing on June 16.