Sir Clive Booth has resigned from his position of chair of the Big Lottery Fund after taking the organisation through what has been a sometimes difficult period.

BIG has begun to look for a replacement for Booth, who has held the position for seven years and will finally step down in November. He had given his notice to former culture secretary Ben Bradshaw on 31 March.

A spokeswoman for BIG said: "By giving his notice in March, Sir Clive hoped that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would have enough time to recruit and appoint a new chair and ensure a smooth transition for the BLF."

While he resigned under a Labour government, Booth has been a critic of Conservative Party policy. He had also warned, in 2008, that he would quit his post if the Olympic Games 2012 took more money out of the pockets of good causes. 

In July the under-secretary of state for culture John Penrose announced that BIG will receive a smaller proportion of lottery funding in the future, but that this will be as part of a "larger pie" as the funding of the Olympics ends in the 2013/2014 year. Penrose told Parliament that Big "will be refocused, sharpened and – if I may put it like that – purified".