16 housing ministers in 13 years - has it stopped the job getting done?
Tuesday 14 November 2023 21:37, UK
There have been 16 housing ministers in the last 13 years of Conservative rule 鈥� seven of those in the last two years alone.
With Lee Rowley taking over the housing brief after the prime minister's latest reshuffle, on the Sky News Daily we'll be exploring why there has been so many, and if any of them managed to make a difference to the housing crisis.
Presenter Sally Lockwood is joined by Gurpreet Narwan, our political correspondent, on why there has been so much churn. Plus, Sally speaks to Lord Gavin Barwell, who was housing minister for a year under Theresa May, and Polly Neate, CEO of housing charity Shelter explains the challenges facing renters.
Lord Barwell says that it is "very bad for public policy to have that level of churn".
"It's highly undesirable because you don't get the stability that you want, if you want to encourage business to invest in housing in this country," he tells us.
He says one reason for having so many housing ministers is "because there has been a lot of churn generally" since the Brexit referendum and the government instability that followed.
He adds that the housing job is "particularly vulnerable because of the seniority of the job".
Lord Barwell says while big issues like education and health have a cabinet level minister, housing is part of the wider Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities brief. This means it is a "level two" ministerial role, often for people "who could come into cabinet in the future".
"The moment someone resigns, there's a scandal, or someone has to leave the cabinet they quickly get vaulted upwards," Lord Barwell said.
So has this stopped the job getting done?
Lord Barwell says all governments over the past 40 years haven't given housing the priority it deserves, resulting in a housing crisis.
But he says Mr Sunak's government has particularly weakened planning policy "so we've gone backwards a little bit in the last couple of years".
'Landslides of evictions this winter'
Shelter chief executive Polly Neate warns the housing crisis has put more than a million renters at risk of losing their homes.
She says she hopes the change in minister doesn't further halt the progress of the long-delayed Renters Reform Bill, which contains the move to end no-fault evictions.
"New research shows that if you include children, 1.1 million people are at risk of losing their homes right now," Ms Neate said.
"And then 3.5 million tenants say that they're now worried about becoming homeless because of the cost of the housing.
"So the rents are spiralling out of control and then the cost of living crisis means other expenses are going up, so the combination of those two things are leading to an absolute landslides of evictions this winter."
Sky News Daily contacted the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for a response.
A spokesperson said: "We recently laid out an ambitious long-term plan for housing that includes speeding up the planning system, cutting bureaucracy, and reducing delays to ensure we deliver the homes that local communities want and need.
"We are already on track to deliver one million homes this Parliament, and we have announced £10 billion investment to deliver more of the right homes in the right places without concreting over the countryside.
"Our Renters Reform Bill will deliver a fairer private rented sector, abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions so that all tenants have greater security in their homes and are empowered to challenge poor practice without worrying about retaliatory eviction."
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