Goodbye Esther Hello Christopher

Goodbye Esther Hello Christopher

9:13 AM, 14th February 2020, About 4 years ago 2

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Esther McVey has been sacked from her Housing Minister job and replaced by Christopher Pincher, MP for Tamworth, who becomes the tenth Housing Minister in ten years after Boris Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle.

The Junior Minister role of Housing has become a staging post for rising political stars to get their feet wet or a test of loyalty for longer serving MPs and does not even always come with a full seat at the Cabinet table. There is no way with an average time served of less than a year any sensible well thought out policies can be followed through. Surely housing is up there in peoples priorities with wealth and health?

The revolving door in the last ten years includes Grant Shapps, Mark Prisk, Kris Hopkins, Brandon Lewis, Gavin Barwell, Alok Sharma, Dominic Raab, Kit Malthouse and Esther McVey.

Christopher Pincher was first elected Conservative MP for Tamworth in May 2010 and was previously Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 25 July 2019 to 13 February 2020 and Deputy Chief Whip, Treasurer of HM Household from 9 January 2018 to 25 July 2019. He was also Comptroller of HM Household (Government Whip) from June 2017 to November 2017 and was an Assistant Government Whip from 17 July 2016 until 15 June 2017.

Announcing the news on his Twitter feed Christopher said: “Delighted to be appointed as the @mhclg Minister of State for Housing – though sad to be leaving a great team at @foreignoffice This Government will deliver on our commitment to build the housing that people need. Looking forward to getting stuck in alongside @RobertJenrick”

In a  joint statement from NAEA/ARLA, Mark Hayward and David Cox commented: “We welcome Christopher Pincher as the new Housing Minister. Unfortunately, the lack of continuity in this post and the persistent changes means it’s near impossible for anyone in the role to make an impact.

“Fixing the broken housing market should be the priority, and there’s a number of consultations and policy that requires action most importantly the Regulation of Property Agents. We look forward to working with the new Minister on these important changes to the industry.”

The Minister of State for Housing is responsible for:

  • Supporting the Housing Secretary on housing supply policy and delivery
  • Housing financing streams
  • Home ownership policy
  • Planning policy and casework oversight
  • Homes England sponsorship and performance
  • Building safety and regulations (including government response to the Hackitt review)
  • Land assembly and release, and Public Sector Land and Digital Land
  • Help to Buy
  • Quality and design
  • Grenfell recovery programme
  • Social Housing Green Paper

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Comments

Whiteskifreak Surrey

13:14 PM, 14th February 2020, About 4 years ago

Yesterday reshuffle did absolutely nothing to help the housing market and the LLs. Pincher will be as useless as the others before him.
1. What the contributors here are thinking about the new chancellor? I call him "YES, YES, YES DOM" man. No change for us, if any - for the worse.
2. I am still awaiting for the "Boris the Landlords' Friend' update from some esteemed contributors on this forum... So far nothing has materialised....

Ian Narbeth

14:32 PM, 14th February 2020, About 4 years ago

It must be galling for Cabinet members to know they all serve at Dominic Cummings' pleasure.

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