Lesley Titcomb, who will leave The Pensions Regulator at the end of her four-year term in February, has been criticised by MPs

The head of The Pensions Regulator has announced plans to step down two weeks after a damning report from MPs investigating the collapse of Carillion.

Lesley Titcomb, who has been chief executive of the pension funds watchdog for the past three and a half years, said that she would leave at the end of her four-year contract next February.

Her stewardship of the TPR was severely criticised by MPs on the pensions and business select committees, who said last month that they had no confidence in the watchdog and labelled it timid and feeble. The TPR needed a change of culture, they said, adding that they were “far from convinced that its current leadership is equipped to effect that change”.

About 27,000 past employees of