Michael Gove has been named the new minister for housing, communities and local government, replacing Robert Jenrick who was removed from the role
As the new housing secretary, Michael Gove will decide where and how new housing should be approved.
He will have to form a new strategy to meet the government’s 300,000-a-year housing target.
Gove is the fourth to hold the housing secretary of state Cabinet post since it was introduced in 2018.
‘Watershed moment for planning’
On the appointment of Michael Gove to the role of housing secretary, Crispin Truman, chief executive of CPRE, said: “We welcome Michael Gove as the new housing secretary at this watershed moment for planning.
“With his past experience as environment secretary, we hope and expect him to champion local communities, nature and climate as his department drafts the new Planning Bill.
“That means securing the voice of local people in planning decisions, holding developers to affordable housing targets, ending land banking, and protecting our local green spaces and countryside by reusing previously developed land first.”
Sam Le Pard, co-founder of LEXI Finance, commented: “At a time when we still face a shortage of housing, material price inflation and supply chain issues, the new housing secretary will need to rapidly get to grips with their brief if they are to enable SME developers to play a key role in tackling the housing crisis.
“SMEs are vital to unlocking smaller tracts of land and regeneration sites across the country and will be essential if the government is to achieve its levelling-up agenda.”
