New Housing Minister named

Steve Reed OBE has been appointed as Housing Secretary in the recent Cabinet reshuffle

Following on from the resignation of Angela Rayner as housing secretary on Friday 5 September, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North has been named as her replacement, having previously held the post of secretary of state for environment, food, and rural affairs.

As reported by The Telegraph, Reed has vowed to continue the drive towards building 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament. In a meeting with his new department, he said it was time to "move on to the next stage in unleashing one of the biggest eras of building in our country’s history". In a statement posted on X, he spoke of the “huge honour” in being appointed, saying: “Together, we will get Britain building and create a future where everyone has access to affordable, safe homes and thriving communities.”

A source from the housing department said: "The Labour Government inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, with a shortage of homes creating soaring house prices that block families from their dream of home ownership.

"The new Housing Secretary will smash through every barrier to build 1.5million homes. Let’s get Britain building."

With a commercial background in educational and business publishing, Reed served as a councillor in Lambeth Council before going on to lead the council from 2006 to 2012. Whilst in this role, he co-chaired the Vauxhall-Nine Elms-Battersea regeneration board, which oversaw a 20,000-home redevelopment programme. He was first elected as an MP in 2012.

The housing sector has responded to the appointment of Reed to his new post with key figures welcoming him to the role and reminding him of the task ahead.

As reported by Inside Housing, Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said on LinkedIn that they and their housing association members across the country look forward to working with Reed to “bring forward a decade of renewal, and deliver a generational boost to social and affordable housing”.

Chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, Brian Berry, said: “The former housing secretary made several high-profile announcements aimed at getting Britain building again, but the sad fact is that the number of new homes has fallen short of the 300,000 that are needed each year.

“Support for first-time buyers is non-existent, and the proposed planning reforms to speed up development have yet to materialise.

“There are now added fears that proposed reforms to the landfill tax could add even more cost to building homes, thereby hampering attempts to grow the housing market. Any additional cost on delivering new homes would be a backwards step when we need more, not fewer, homes to be built.”

The End Our Cladding Scandal group, which campaigns for leaseholders and residents impacted by inadequate or unsafe cladding on their buildings, said: “Our longstanding call for Labour to grip this crisis and use the machinery and law in place to take control from the centre remains key.

“There must be independence in the system and visible oversight of the end-to-end remediation process to take the weight from leaseholders and residents, [who] still face lengthy battles at each unsafe building [that is] being ‘monitored’.”

Mark Washer, group chief executive of Sovereign Network Group said Reed was a “strong” appointment as secretary of state, which demonstrated that “housing has maintained its central place in the government’s agenda”. He said that it was now down to Reed to “make sure the department and its 1.5 million-home milestone carries the same weight in Cabinet” and called for continued close engagement with housing associations.