A survey revealed last year that 41% of councils do not employ any urban designers, and 76% lack access to any advice on architecture.

The change to the country’s planning rules was part of a package of measures that ministers claimed would ensure new housing was “beautiful and well-designed”. The government is setting up an “Office for Place” to help “communities encourage development they find beautiful, and refuse what they find ugly”.

The report, published by the UCL-based Place Alliance, highlights 12 schemes rejected on design grounds since last July. The inspectorate found proposals for an unattractive block of 15 flats on the site of a demolished car park in Crawley in West Sussex would offer “unsatisfactory living conditions”. Some flats had limited natural light and the outside spaces were close to roads and railway lines. Others lacked privacy as windows were next to people passing on a walkway and close to cars queueing on a traffic gyratory system.

The inspectorate also backed Braintree district council’s efforts to block two estates on the edges of villages in Essex, where developers were trying to squeeze in large numbers of houses, jarring with houses nearby. Officials also turned down an appeal relating to five tower blocks on the former Westferry newspaper printworks site in east London. It was ruled the scheme – which led to a row about media mogul Richard Desmond’s contact with ministers tasked with planning decisions – would harm appreciation of the Greenwich world heritage site.

Wiltshire council is recruiting a number of new senior management in roles created following the realignment of its senior management structure, as a result of its new 10-year business plan.

With an ambitious programme of work outlined in the 2017-2027 business plan, an increasing number of exceptional leaders are needed to deliver the council’s vision. This vision is based around three key priorities – growing the economy, building stronger communities and protecting the vulnerable. Delivery of these priorities is dependent on having a talented and committed workforce.

The council is currently looking to fill three director posts – education and skills, adult care operations (learning disability and mental health), and finance and procurement. It is also seeking a commercial manager to develop traded services to schools, which is a new and exciting area with opportunities for commercial development.

Terence Herbert, corporate director and the council’s statutory director of children’s services, outlined that the council is looking for someone to fill the post of director of education and skills, who “understands the synergies between education and employment.