James Brokenshire, MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, has been appointed secretary of state for housing, communities and local government. He replaces Sajid Javid, who has been promoted to home secretary.
Javid is taking over the cabinet position from Amber Rudd, who resigned last night following the so-called “Windrush scandal”, which has seen her accused of misleading parliament over targets for removing illegal immigrants.
Brokenshire was both the former immigration minister and Northern Ireland secretary. He resigned in January due to receiving medical treatment to remove a tumour on his lung, but has said to have been recovering well.
Dominic Raab will continue as housing minister and report to Brokenshire.
Honoured to have been asked by the Prime Minister to serve as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government. Looking forward to taking the Government’s agenda forward especially on building the homes our country needs. @mhclg
— James Brokenshire (@JBrokenshire) April 30, 2018
Brokenshire’s voting record on housing since being appointed MP in 2005 shows he has consistently voted for phasing out secure tenancies for life, as well as for charging market rent to high earners in council homes.
In 2014, he voted against boosting housing supply by reforming the development industry; against measures to tackle landbanking; against a new generation of New Towns and Garden Cities and against giving local authorities a new right to grow to deliver the homes their communities need.
He has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change, including voting not to reduce the permitted carbon dioxide emission rate of new homes.
Brokenshire voted to remain at the EU referendum. He has almost always voted for reducing capital gains taxes and has also generally voted against greater regulation of gambling.
The industry has welcomed Brokenshire, while raising concerns about the lack of continuity of political leadership in the housing sector.
Johnny Caddick, managing director at PRS developer Moda, said: “The lack of ministerial continuity should worry the entire sector, so we hope that James Brokenshire can buck the trend of past ministers and provide stability to the government’s housing approach and see through the much needed reforms.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “While it is disappointing to lose Sajid Javid from housing, we welcome James Brokenshire and look forward to working with him to drive forward the government’s multi-tenure approach to new housing delivery and the policy changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.
“These changes underpin the government’s agenda on so many levels – providing the right homes in the right places will increase UK productivity, economic growth and social wellbeing in the long term.”
Pic credit: Geoff Pugh/REX/Shutterstock
To send feedback e-mail paul.wellman@egi.co.uk or tweet @paulwellman eg or @estatesgazette
