Local government secretary, Eric Pickles, has appointed four new members to the board of the Audit Commission, which has the job of shutting down the spending watchdog.

Adrian Collett, Andrea Sutcliffe, Nicola Scrivings and Ruth Thompson are filling vacancies created when four commissioners came to the end of their terms of office in December 2012.

Pickles said the new commissioners would work alongside other board members to achieve 'an efficient and effective closedown' by 2015.

Collett joins as the Liberal Democrat local government commissioner. Thompson has held a number of government posts, including director general of higher education at the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Sutcliffe is chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence and a former deputy chief executive at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Scrivings has spent most of her career in the Royal Mail, including most recently as a regional operations director.