Breaking Property News – 14/11/2023
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Lee Rowley appointed housing minister – again
Since the turn of the millennium we have had 24 housing ministers, that is two dozen of them in just 23 years. As we trawl through the names do any stick in our memory as being outstanding, or to the point can anyone remember a single thing that they did which helped housing?
We have had Nick Raynsford, Charles Falconer, Jeffrey Rooker, Keith Hill, Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint, Margaret Beckett, John Healey, Grant Shapps, Mark Prisk, Kris Hopkins, Brandon Lewis, Brandon Barwell, Alok Sharma, Dominic Raab, Kit Malthouse, Esther McVey, Christopher Pincher, Stuart Andrew, Marcus Jones, Lee Rowley for the first time, Lucy Frazer, Rachel Maclean and for a return visit Lee Rowley.
If like me you cannot remember any of them actually doing anything it is probably because that many were in office a few short months, indeed Rachael Maclean was only in office nine-months, but that was longer than any of the four ministers who had come before here.
And Rachel Maclean who was tomorrow to be the person putting flesh on some pretty important housing policies having now been consigned to the scrap heap, will now have to watch Lee Rowley, roll up his sleeves and get on with it.
Given that in less than a year we will see a General election, which many pundits have already said is likely to be a Labour landslide larger than Tony Blair’s, it would seem likely that Lee Rowley’s tenure as Housing Minister is going to just long enough to be of exactly zero value, which will put him on a par with most of those who have held this post.
Maybe unlike some former Housing Ministers, Mr Pincher for example, Lee can keep out of the media limelight for all the right reasons and prove to be a safe choice for Rishi Sunak. Though of course Lee Rowley was last in post as Housing Minister for PM Liz Truss, and he is a big backer of Kemi Badenoch so all may not be plain sailing.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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