Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Living Streets, will take over from Locality’s CEO, Steve Wyler, later this year.

Armstrong has been chief executive of Living Streets, which encourages people to improve their local environments and campaigns for better quality streets, since 2008 and will join Locality as chief executive in take up his new role in July.

Before joining the voluntary sector he was a civil servant for nine years and held a number of senior policy adviser roles in government.

Armstrong said he was “delighted” to be joining the organisation and that: “I’m passionate about communities achieving positive change and Locality’s members are doing exactly that, despite the challenges they face and the barriers placed before them. The organisation is ideally placed to use this vast wealth of experience and individual stories to shape how we as a society make decisions and shape our services.”

Locality, an umbrella body that represents around 600 community organisations, was formed three years ago from the merger of bassac and the Development Trust Association, which Wyler had been chief executive of since 2000.

It runs the government's community organisers programme.

Joanna Holmes, chair of Locality said: “Tony brings something new to the organisation as well as a solid grounding in the kind of work Locality and its members do. I really look forward to working with him and the rest of the team to take Locality into the next phase of our development, building on all our success to date.”

Wyler announced his departure in December 2013 and will continue at the charity until July to handover to the new chief executive. He has not announced future plans.

He said: “Driven by the energy and skill of our members, our board, our staff, and our many allies, Locality has made a flying start. So it feels to me that this is the right time to hand over to Tony, who brings such an exceptional mix of experience and ability, and will, I have no doubt, raise the game still further.”