I am very pleased to have been appointed to the role of Minister of State for Housing in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by the Prime Minister. I look forward to joining ministerial colleagues to work on one of the priority areas for the Government.
Although brief, my time in the Department for Work and Pensions was very rewarding and it was a pleasure to see the transformative power of Universal Credit to help people into work and stay there. The reform will make the world of difference to people who had been let down by the previous system and touring job centres around the country and meeting the brilliant staff gave me a huge amount of confidence in the Government’s marquee social reform. I wish my replacement, Justin Tomlinson MP, all the best as he takes over.
Everyone deserves a safe, affordable and secure place to call home and fixing Britain’s broken housing market is of paramount importance to me and is the generational challenge of our time. As I start the job it will be safety, affordability, environmental quality and my longstanding commitment to strong local plans and neighbourhood plans in the forefront of my mind. Let’s get started.