Matthew Pennycook appointed as Labour’s Housing Minister

Matthew Pennycook is Labour’s new housing minister, following Angela Rayner’s appointment as Housing Secretary and deputy leader.

He is the MP who tabled an amendment to the Renters (Reform) Bill which would have prevented landlords from selling for two years after a tenancy had started.

The MP for Greenwich and Woolwich said: “It is a real honour to have been appointed Minister of State at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

“Tackling the housing crisis and boosting economic growth is integral to national renewal. Time to get to work.”

Propertymark welcomes Mr Pennycook’s appointment

Nathan Emerson, the chief executive of Propertymark, said the organisation welcomes Mr Pennycook’s appointment.

He added: “Housing must play a pivotal role for the government moving forwards and in real terms, delivering over 1,100 new homes every single working day for the next five years will take immense planning and enormous stakeholder engagement to achieve.

“There needs to be a long-term cross-party approach with continuity built in as standard – we should never be looking at a housing plan as an insular five-year government term, in case of any change down the line.

“There must be a broad mix of sustainably built homes that brings much needed stock to both buyers and renters. The plan must be delivered with precision and in a way that is connected with wider government planning to ensure key infrastructure is provisioned for as the population further grows.”

Proposals to alter planning rules

Meanwhile, Labour has asked former Conservative minister Nick Boles to help deliver proposals to alter planning rules to ‘get Britain building’.

An announcement is expected in the next few days about how the government will deliver millions of promised new homes.

Mr Boles was the planning minister in David Cameron’s coalition government and his job is to make it to build new homes to ease the housing crisis and deliver gigafactories and laboratories.

The new rules could see mandatory home-building targets for local authorities being reintroduced and making it easier to build on green belt land.

Labour says it will be selecting building sites by the end of the year.