Who has been the best housing minister for Britain’s broken housing market?
A revolving door of housing ministers has seen 17 different people hold the role in the last 20 years, and there’s a high chance of the 18th coming with a soon to be new look Tory Government. With such a high turnover, it’s no wonder we’re struggling to build enough homes but leading letting and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has crunched the numbers to see who has been the best when it comes to delivering within the role.
With the jury still out on Kit Malthouse until the relevant data is released by the Government, Benham and Reeves looked at the number of permanent dwellings completed during the tenure of each of the other ministers.
The data shows that Yvette Cooper is the best housing minister to grace the Government since 1997, with an average of 17,984 permanent dwellings completed per month during her time in the role between May 2005 and January 2008.
Keith Hill ranks second with 16,619 dwellings completed per month between June 2003 and May 2005.
Alok Sharma also saw the average number of dwellings completed per month top 16,000 during his time as housing minister.
Mark Prisk, Grant Schapps, Kris Hopkins and Jon Healey rank as the worst-performing housing ministers, with the level of homes built falling below an average of 13,000 per month.
Yvette and Keith also top the table when it comes to properties completed by private enterprise during their time as housing minister, however, when it comes to social housing it is, in fact, Margaret Beckett that had the best performance.
During her time as housing minister between October 2008 and June 2009, the Labour minister saw a total of 3,079 social housing dwellings completed per month by either Housing Associations or local authorities.
Dominic Raab and Alok Sharma also oversaw more than 3,000 social housing completions on average per month during their time in the role.
Director of Benham and Reeves, Anita Mehra, commented:
“It’s no secret that the Government has been pretty abysmal when it comes to delivering enough homes to meet the demand of the nation’s aspirational homeowners.
It is encouraging to see that some of the more recent housing ministers have pulled their socks up a tad, but this has been insufficient enough to address the current situation in a meaningful manner.
While we’ve been failing to build enough homes, the population has been swelling, house prices have been increasing and wages have failed to keep pace. All of which has exacerbated an issue that was already quite dire, to begin with. No doubt yet another name will take over the role when the next circus comes to town bringing little change with it.
Until we address the issue of supply and allow the housing minister to operate as a Secretary of State in order to actually do something meaningful, we will continue to see an inadequate number of homes delivered by the Government.”
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Ranking – by average number of all dwellings completed (per month)
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Housing Minister
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Position held
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Average number of dwellings completed per month
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Average number of dwellings completed per month – Private
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Average number of dwellings completed per month – Social
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Yvette Cooper
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May 2005 to Jan 2008
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17,984
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15,814
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2,170
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Keith Hill
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June 2003 to May 2005
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16,619
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14,921
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1,698
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Alok Sharma
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June 2017 to Jan 2018
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16,500
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13,498
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3,002
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Dominic Raab
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Jan 2018 to July 2018
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15,752
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12,710
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3,042
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Caroline Flint
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Jan 2008 to Oct 2008
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15,620
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13,125
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2,495
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Jeff Rooker
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May 2002 to June 2003
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15,359
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13,810
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1,549
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Hilary Armstrong
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May 1997 to May 1999
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15,313
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13,102
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2,211
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Gavin Barwell
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July 2016 to June 2017
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15,296
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12,469
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2,827
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Nick Raynsford
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May 1999 to May 2001
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14,949
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13,046
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1,903
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Charlie Falconer
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May 2001 to May 2002
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14,583
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12,862
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1,721
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Margaret Beckett
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Oct 2008 to June 2009
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14,132
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11,053
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3,079
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Brandon Lewis
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July 2014 to July 2016
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13,681
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10,798
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2,883
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John Healey
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June 2009 to May 2010
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12,372
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9,489
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2,883
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Kris Hopkins
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Oct 2013 to July 2014
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12,086
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9,619
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2,467
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Grant Schapps
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May 2010 to Sept 2012
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11,677
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8,847
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2,830
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Mark Prisk
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Sept 2012 to Oct 2013
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11,089
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8,714
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2,375
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Kit Malthouse
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July 2018 to present
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N/A
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N/A
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N/A
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