Mark Lloyd, the £190,000 a year chief executive of Cambridgeshire County Council, is to take an eight per cent pay cut – around £15,000 a year- to head up the Local Government Association.

He will replace Carolyn Downs, who has been the LGA chief executive since November 2011. She is to become the £191,000 a year chief executive of Brent Council.

Mr Lloyd said: “The LGA is the national voice of local government, working with councils to support, promote and improve local government.

“My contribution at a national level will be grounded in my experiences in Cambridgeshire – and the county will continue to be my family home. “

Mr Lloyd said: “The last seven years in Cambridgeshire have undoubtedly been the most rewarding of my career. I am tremendously proud to have been the council’s chief executive during a time of such fundamental change.”

He added: “I know how tough things look over the next five years. I want to ensure that the LGA is fighting for local communities when it comes to financial agreements with central government, devolution deals and driving economic growth, job creation and tackling housing shortages.”

Council leader Steve Count said: “Mark is an outstanding chief executive. We’re tremendously sad about his impending departure from Cambridgeshire but take some solace from the fact he’ll be working on behalf of all of councils in his new role. The LGA couldn’t have made a better appointment.

“I will be working with the council’s other political leaders in the days ahead to shape a plan to plug the big gap Mark will leave when he takes on his new national role in the autumn.”

LGA chairman Councillor Gary Porter, said: “Mark proved himself to be a standout candidate among a high calibre group. I look forward to working with him to continue to drive forward the key issues for our members on further devolution, fair funding and securing a sustainable adult social care system.”

Last month Mr Lloyd hit the headlines after publication of his expenses which showed he had claimed ‘mileage’ for using his cycle.

The council later confirmed the amounts claimed had been repaid.

The accounts showed that in one month he had claimed a total of 60p for getting on his bike twice for separate journeys.

His spokesman said he had taken the decision to repay the cycling mileage as a way of “acknowledging the financial restraints the council is in as well as the time taken to make these claims.

“He stopped making them for short trips some time ago and also reimbursed the council for the small handful of journeys previously included in mileage claims.”

UKIP county council group leader Paul Bullen said: “If it was me, I wouldn’t have claimed it in the first place.”

Mr Lloyd has overseen the transition from cabinet to committee governance at Shire Hall following the 2013 elections which left no party in overall control.

“So it’s our job to make sure that we as officers support our elected bosses to make this system work well,” he said last year as the committee system was introduced.

“And what we’ve also done, as well as setting up the five service committees that will run the parts of our organisation, the chair and the vice-chair of each of those committees will come together in one place to try and make sure we run this like a management board.

“That will bring the oversight and the coherence to what we’re doing as a council. “Because one of the criticisms of the old committee system, and what we’ve tried to do is to invent a new one fit for today, one of the criticisms of the old system was that you end up with fiefdoms or silos that were disconnected from everything else.

“And through bringing the chairs and the vice-chairs together in something that we’re calling a general purposes committee.

“Not a great title I have to say, but through that committee we’ll try and ensure that we can continue to maintain a coherent approach to leading and managing the council, through our five service committees.”