MHCLG Ministerial Team

MHCLG has announced the new ministerial team tasked with ‘getting Britain building again’ and delivering on government’s ambition to see 1.5 million homes built over the next five years.

The freshly renamed department is key to delivering the government’s mission to boost economic growth by speeding up the delivery of new homes and infrastructure.

Accordingly, the department is led by the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, ensuring it will be heard at the highest levels of government as it embarks on key reforms including an overhaul of England’s National Planning Policy Framework, the reintroduction of mandatory housing targets for local authorities, and the delivery of a new generation of new towns.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP

The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP was appointed Labour’s Deputy Leader in 2020 and has been MP for the Manchester seat of Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. In the 2024 general election, she was returned with an increased majority of 6,791 with a decreased vote share of 43.9%.

A shadow minister since 2016, Rayner has little professional experience in housing or the built environment but describes herself as a “creature of local government” due to her years working as a care worker for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. She pledged that on taking power her government would “start by resetting our relationship with local government and rebuilding its foundations”.

As secretary of state, Angela Rayner has strategic oversight of MHCLG’s key business and policy areas, including housing and planning, local government and English devolution, and regional and local growth.

She is also responsible for public appointments within the department and chairs the government’s inter-ministerial group on homelessness and rough sleeping.

 

Minister of State (Minister for Housing and Planning) – Matthew Pennycook MP

Labour’s housing spokesperson since December 2021, Matthew Pennycook MP was first elected as MP for Greenwich and Woolwich in May 2015, and re-elected in 2024 with an increased majority of more than 18,000.

He has local government experience, having been a councillor in the London Borough of Greenwich from 2010 to 2015. Prior to entering the Commons he worked for charitable and voluntary organisations including the Fair Pay Network and the Resolution Foundation.

As the UK government’s 17^th housing minister since 2010, many in the development industry will hope Pennycook’s tenure is not as short as that ‘enjoyed’ by many of his predecessors, although some may have concerns: in May 2021, he announced his opposition to a 1,500-home development project in his constituency over concerns about the height of its planned high rises. He also argued in 2022 that housing supply is not a “panacea for affordability”.

A key figure in the department, his responsibilities include the largest items on MHCLG’s to-do list, including planning reform and the National Planning Policy Framework, the new planning and infrastructure bill, housing delivery and new towns, brownfield infrastructure land and housing infrastructure funds, housing supply strategy, and Homes England and the Planning Inspectorate.

 

Minister of State (Minister for Local Government and English Devolution) – Jim  McMahon OBE MP

Jim McMahon MP was elected as the MP for Oldham West, Chadderton, and Royton in July 2024 with a majority of 12,232, having represented the former Oldham West and Royton constituency since 2015.

McMahon has significant experience in local government as a regeneration officer and town centre manager, as a councillor from 2003 to 2017, and as Leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council from 2011 to 2016. He was awarded an OBE in 2015 for “services to the community in Oldham”.

He served in the Labour’s shadow cabinet as shadow transport secretary from 2020 to 2021, and shadow environment secretary from 2021 to 2023.

As minister of state his responsibilities include:

• Strategic oversight of English local and regional government structures,
• Local government finance (including local taxation, business rates and local government pensions),
• Local government policy (including the office for local government, stewardship, local audit, and governance reform),
• Mayoral combined authorities and pan-regional bodies.

 

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Building Safety and Homelessness) – Rushanara Ali MP

Rushanara Ali became the UK’s first British Bangladeshi MP when she was elected to represent Bethnal Green and Bow in 2010 and now represents its successor seat – Bethnal Green and Stepney – despite seeing her majority collapse to just 1,689 following the 2024 general election.

A former civil servant and research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research, Ali has held shadow posts including Shadow Minister of State for International Development, Shadow Minister of State for Education, and Shadow Minister for Investment and Small Business. She was appointed as prime ministerial trade envoy to Bangladesh in 2016 by the then Prime Minister David Cameron.

As minister for building safety and homelessness her responsibilities include the Grenfell Inquiry, building safety, and housing quality.

 

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Democracy and Local Growth) – Alex Norris MP

Alex Norris MP was elected as the MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley in July 2024 with a majority of 9,427, having represented the previous seat of Nottingham North since 2017. Before this, Norris was a Nottingham City councillor for six years, serving as portfolio holder for adults and health.

In November 2021 he became shadow minister for levelling up. Other opposition roles have included opposition whip, shadow minister for prevention, public health and primary care, and shadow minister for policing.

His departmental responsibilities include local and regional growth, including local growth plans, high streets and towns, community ownership (including assets of community value), and investment zones and freeports.

 

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government) – Baroness Taylor of Stevenage OBE

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage OBE is well placed to help steer unpopular planning reforms through Parliament – in addition to being a former council leader with an OBE for services to local government, Sharon Taylor is also a government whip in the House of Lords.

Newly appointed to Labour’s front bench, Baroness Taylor was an elected member of Stevenage Borough Council in Hertfordshire from 1997 to 2024 and served as the leader of the council from 2006 to 2022, when she received a life peerage.

As Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State her duties include housing delivery and strategy, the new homes ombudsman, and net zero and energy efficiency.

 

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Lords Minister for Faith, Communities and Resettlement) – Lord Khan of Burnley

Completing MHCLG’s ministerial team is Wajid Iltaf Khan, Baron Khan of Burnley, a Labour politician elected as an MEP for northwest England from 2017 to 2019, and as Mayor of Burnley from 2020 to 2021. He was conferred a life peerage in 2020 following a nomination by Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer.

His departmental responsibilities concern faith, community relations, and resettlement.