Robert Jenrick MP has been appointed as the new secretary of state for housing, communities and local government on 24 July 2019, succeeding James Brokenshire
Robert Jenrick takes over from James Brokenshire, who has left the ministry after more than a year in the role.
Jenrick has been appointed as part of Boris Johnson’s reshuffle of the cabinet, alongside new Chancellor Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Liz Truss as International Trade Secretary.
Robert Jenrick entered Parliament following a by-election in June 2014. He served on the health select committee from July 2014 until he was appointed a parliamentary private secretary to the minister for employment at the Department for Work and Pensions.
He was appointed as parliamentary private secretary to the lord chancellor and secretary of state for Justice in May 2015 and from June 2017 served as parliamentary private secretary to the home secretary. From July 2017 until his appointment as exchequer secretary he was a member of the Board of the Conservative Party.
CLA president, Tim Breitmeyer, said: “We welcome Mr Jenrick as Secretary of State at MHCLG and look forward to working together to ensure rural communities can play their part in solving the housing crisis.
“Changes to planning will be key, but there are huge opportunities in empowering appropriate development in villages across the countryside. Much of this needs to be focused on affordable housing, enabling more to live and work locally. This will provide a much needed boost to rural economies and go some way to reversing the long-term decline of many of our villages.”
