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Gove gears up – what to expect from the new housing secretary

As political big beast Michael Gove takes over as housing secretary, what can the sector expect? James Wilmore investigates  

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Michael Gove (left), the new housing secretary, with permanent secretary Jeremy Pocklington (picture: MHCLG)
Michael Gove (left), the new housing secretary, with permanent secretary Jeremy Pocklington (picture: MHCLG)
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As political big beast Michael Gove takes over as housing secretary, what can the sector expect? James Wilmore investigates #ukhousing

Glancing at Michael Gove’s CV, you are reminded of the head-spinning number of jobs he has held in his career.

Justice secretary, environment secretary, education secretary, chief whip, cabinet secretary and, most recently, the wide-ranging brief under the title of chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. And not, of course, forgetting his spells pre-Westminster as a BBC reporter, then Times journalist.

One crumb of comfort for the sector as it wakes to the realisation of having to deal with yet another housing secretary, is that his political experience has included housing, albeit not as a minister.

Back in 2005, when the Conservatives were in opposition, the Aberdeen-born politician spent two years as shadow housing minister.

His time in this role, though short, was interesting, as he was credited with shifting the party towards a more pro-development position and away from the Nimbyish nature of its grass roots.

He pledged higher housebuilding targets and floated the idea of building new homes on farmland and even Green Belt land. His replacement with Grant Shapps in 2007 was reported as the party reverting back to a more conservative position, with Mr Shapps preaching a return to the localism he eventually helped implement in government.

Inside Housing interviewed Mr Gove during this period in a wide-ranging piece, only available in our printed archives.

In it, he raised doubts about extending the Right to Buy to housing associations. “Far fewer people live in social housing now than in 1979,” he told Inside Housing. “It’s vitally important, given homelessness and other factors, that we maintain a decent social housing stock.”

However, a decade later, he had changed tack and was lauding a Conservative commitment to extend the controversial policy to housing association tenants. The policy has, however, yet to get beyond the pilot stage.

In the interview, he also grasped the nettle of the Conservatives’ bent towards Nimbyism, saying the party had been “pictured as a party that is in favour of development in general but opposed to nearly every scheme that comes forward”.

His solution is reminiscent of a very current philosophy: the idea that opposition to new homes would melt away if they were “beautiful”. He said he felt a lot of the opposition was based on homes that were “not in keeping with the areas they were built and not as attractive as they should be”.

This, of course, is the basis of the ‘Building Beautiful’ agenda which arrived during Theresa May’s time as prime minister and is still a popular idea. Perhaps this should not be too much of a surprise: this policy emanated from the Policy Exchange, the think-tank of which Mr Gove was the founding chairman.


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In the 2006 interview, he also branded housing policy a “Cinderella subject” for his party. He admitted it had lost focus after the huge impact it had in the 1980s, chiefly through prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s original Right to Buy policy.

“There’s a real need to look with a fresh pair of eyes at the particular problems that we have now,” he said at the time. “This is a policy area that I think is ripe for modernisation.”

Fast forward 16 years and his opportunity has arrived, as he takes the baton from the swiftly departed, and some may say hapless, Robert Jenrick.

His predecessor leaves a weighty in-tray. Housing has definitely come to the ball in recent years, with the housing crisis, post-Grenfell safety reforms and a still-to-be decided planning shake-up all offering their own challenges.

So what to expect from MHCLG’s new broom?

In more recent times, Oxford graduate Mr Gove has made some noises the sector would welcome. During his 2016 leadership bid, he said: “We need a national ambition to build hundreds of thousands of new homes a year, both private and socially rented, led by someone who will not take no for an answer and who will push for diggers in the ground and homes for all, come what may.”

This seemed significant at the time as, for the previous six years, the Conservatives’ homeownership focus had prevented any minister even uttering the words “social rent”. But now it seems a bit less of a change.

The government returned small amounts of funding to social rent under Ms May, but is yet to fund the tenure at any significant scale.

Mr Gove’s commitment to building new homes has not always extended to his own constituency. As recently as October 2020, for example, he spoke against the construction of 44 homes in Bagshot, half of them affordable, warning the development would “alter the character of the village for the worse”.

As Mr Gove himself said, this stance of being pro-development in general but anti-local schemes is a common characteristic of the Conservative Party and has been true of most of his predecessors.

A major part of his role will be deciding what to do about the major planning reform which would allocate vast zones of the country for new housing. However, this is reportedly on the backburner, due to opposition among the grass roots of the party.

With a reputation as a troubleshooter, it will be intriguing to see if Mr Gove is tempted to pull any further levers in tackling the housing crisis.

Inside Housing columnist Jules Birch previously suggested Mr Gove could be tempted to take on housing associations in an effort to get homes built, regarding social landlords as an “obstacle” in the same way he saw teachers as “The Blob” when he was education secretary.

Clearly, he is not afraid to ruffle feathers, so this could be an area to watch, not least as his predecessor has this year reheated an old beef about the pay packets of housing association bosses, and with a potentially painful spending review looming.

One other area that could concern the sector is the fact that Boris Johnson has instructed his old sparring partner to get to grips with the levelling-up agenda. With an election just over two years away, and it being one of the central planks of the prime minister’s agenda, it will be intriguing to see how it plays into the housing agenda.

On top of this, Mr Gove retains responsibility for overseeing the union of the United Kingdom while the Scottish National Party threatens a second independence referendum. And he remains in charge of elections.

Housing secretary is a big job, even in normal times, so handling distractions like this will require a level head.

Either way, Mr Gove is unlikely to find much spare time to let his hair down on dance floors.

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