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It is the wrong time to change the housing minister

The removal of Alok Sharma while work on the green paper is ongoing is baffling, writes Emma Maier

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Dominic Raab replaces Alok Sharma as housing minister
Dominic Raab replaces Alok Sharma as housing minister
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Decision to change housing minister is “baffling”, writes @EmmaMaier #ukhousing

This is not the time to change ministers – Inside Housing's view on the reshuffle @EmmaMaier #ukhousing

Alok Sharma was given to starting his speeches with an anecdote about the life expectancy of housing ministers. “What will you do in your final seven months?” he was asked by the chair during his first speaking engagement as housing minister, three months after his appointment.

Little did he know that he would be bringing down the average tenure for a housing minister further.

But this week he was reshuffled and replaced by Dominic Raab.

"Housing was not a natural brief for Mr Sharma but losing him so soon is a blow"

What made for a passable attempt at observational comedy is less funny for those in housing looking for some continuity to underpin their work to help solve the housing crisis. Less still those on the receiving end – be they tenants looking for a voice, those on the housing waiting list or Theresa May’s ‘JAMs’ (people who are “just about managing” and priced out of owning a home).

Housing was not a natural brief for Mr Sharma but losing him so soon is a blow. His short tenure began just one day before the Grenfell Tower fire and was defined by the tragedy. The government’s initial response was severely lacking but Mr Sharma’s subsequent roadshow to meet hundreds of tenants was well received.

Tenants and landlords will be concerned that the views aired will be lost. The work was intended to help shape the Social Housing Green Paper and cutting short this important listening project with just one meeting left to run is nothing short of politically baffling.


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By contrast, the prime minister decided to rename the Department for Communities and Local Government the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and to expand Sajid Javid’s title. This clear statement of intent builds on Ms May’s comments last year, in which she made housing the focus of her premiership on the domestic front.

As statements of intent go, promoting housing to the cabinet for the first time in decades is significant. But if the PM is to achieve her ambition, she will need to go beyond personnel changes and rebrands.

Across government, there is a degree of agreement that housing should be a priority. There is disagreement over how to solve the issue, with some favouring borrowing to boost building and others keen to reduce restrictions on green belt land, some focused on ownership and others recognising the need for a broader solution.

"If the PM is to achieve her ambition, she will need to go beyond personnel changes and rebrands"

The newly named ministry looks set to include a heady mix of views.

New housing minister Mr Raab has campaigned to protect the green belt, and boasted of defeating new boss Mr Javid’s proposed green belt measures.

On the face of it, some of Mr Raab’s views appear at odds with the concerns held by many in housing, including his comments trying to recast people relying on food banks as having a “cashflow problem”, and his support for the bedroom tax and speedy welfare reform.

The question for housing lobbyists will be how much they choose to target the housing minister in future, given the short lifespan of recent ministers and the newly created housing secretary.

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