New Housing Minister is ... a former housing minister...

The new Housing Minister is Lee Rowley - who was a former housing minister during the short lived premiership of Liz Truss.

Rowley - who since last autumn has been serving as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities - now takes centre stage in charge of the Renters Reform Bill.

He replaces Rachel Maclean who this afternoon was sacked as housing minister as part of today's government reshuffle.

She tweeted: “I’ve been asked to step down from my role as Housing Minister. Disappointed and was looking forward to introducing the Renters Reform Bill to Committee tomorrow and later the Leasehold and Freehold Bill. It has been a privilege to hold the position and I wish my successor well.”

As she intimated in her tweet, Maclean was scheduled to be part of tomorrow morning’s Committee Stage session, debating the Renters Reform Bill.

Maclean, who was first elected to Parliament in 2017, was appointed to this role in February this year and was the 15th housing minister since 2010.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove - who was Maclean's boss at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities - has indicated his support for Maclean by sharing a message posted on social media by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch.

Badenoch wrote of Maclean: “You were an excellent, minister, always attentive to MPs and their constituents and got some very tricky legislation over the line.”

Rowley, 43 and a Brexiteer, is MP for North East Derbyshire.

His first job out of Oxford university was as an estate agent; prior to entering parliament he spent over a decade in finance and consultancy roles at Barclays, Santander, KPMG and Co-Op Insurance.

In politics he served for eight years as a councillor at Westminster City Council, stepping down in 2014 in a bid to become an MP.

In 2020 he was appointed deputy chair of the Conservative Party but he resigned that position in 2021. He then became a junior minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a junior government whip.

In the early summer of last year he was amongst the many ministers to resign from the government of Boris Johnson, and became an active supporter of Kemi Badenoch in the summer 2022 Conservative leadership election.

Kristjan Byfield
13 November 2023 13:40 PM

If history teaches us anything it will be someone with a rich and diverse background in housing and its delivery as well as a nuanced understanding of both the regulations within social housing and the PRS as well as the complex planning system. They will be passionate about housing and its delivery and absolutely. definitely won't be using this as some sort of political stepping stone to further their career.

Barry X
13 November 2023 21:23 PM

@KB.... you are seriously delusional if you actually believe a word of all the gushingly effusive garbage you've spouted here.... I don't for a moment believe there is a single politician in government, opposition or anywhere for that matter in Westminster who actually cares a jot, or knows much, about anything except playing political games that have nothing to do with the real world or its actual needs.... and in furthering their own deeply shallow self-interests at any expense to anyone....

...and, YES, their main priorities WILL be trying to further their own shallow (and often incredibly lucrative) political careers at anyone and everyone else's expense... for they care about nobody but themselves.... if that was not the case they'd find a respectable career doing something useful.