Your guide to the department's cast of ministerial characters, and what’s in their in-trays
The recently re-renamed MHCLG describes itself as “central to the mission-driven government, from fixing the foundations of an affordable home to handing power back to communities and rebuilding local governments”.
To say the department has got its work cut out would be an understatement. One of the Starmer administration’s key targets is to build 1.5 million new homes as part of its mantra of “getting Britain building again”. Before getting into government, Labour set out its “golden rules” for house building, creating a new “grey belt” classification, which inevitably stirred up the YIMBY-vs-NIMBY debate again.
And housing is just one part of the department’s remit, which also includes communities and local government. The government has so far committed to five MHCLG-related bills, including the renters’ rights bill and the Holocaust memorial bill, which made parliamentary progress under the Conservatives. The redrafted bills will likely see the inclusion of amendments Labour proposed while in opposition.
A culture change is taking place within the department. On her first day in government, housing secretary and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner scrapped the previous “levelling up” moniker and told officials that the department would revert to its previous name. She told MHCLG staff that there would be “no more gimmicks, no more slogans,” and that “our department should do what it says on the tin”.
Given the magnitude of the new homes target, not to mention the forces of NIMBYism and planning bureaucracy that stand in the way, Rayner seems well matched to the role. In less than a decade, she has gone from becoming the first-ever woman MP in her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency to DPM – building a fearsome reputation for being outspoken along the way. Rayner has previously condemned her Conservative opponents as “scum” and described herself as “John Prescott in a skirt”.
Being one of the most powerful women in British politics is a world away from her upbringing in Stockport, where she grew up in poverty, left school without qualifications and became a single mother in her teens. A former supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour firebrand is widely regarded as a future Labour prime minister in waiting. She has not tried to hide her ambition, stating in 2021: “Put Keir in as PM and me as deputy, then see how good I am. I reckon I will be good at it. If people are happy, then maybe I’ll have a go after him.”
In 2024, Rayner was the focus of a news story regarding capital gains tax following the sale of her council home. Labour said in its manifesto that it would be reviewing the increased right-to-buy discounts introduced in 2012 to preserve current social housing stock. Rayner has benefited from the right-to-buy scheme herself, and the party maintains that it supports the scheme.
Rayner heads up a ministerial team that is on a steep learning curve, with none having previously served in government. They include ministers of state Matthew Pennycook, who has been shadow housing minister since late 2021, and Jim McMahon, who held the local government portfolio while in opposition.
Pennycook has been consistent in calling for increased tenants’ rights and reforms to the leasehold system. In July, he said social housing providers “need certainty and stability” after years of “constant change and churn” under the Conservative government – which had 16 housing ministers altogether.
McMahon became leader of Oldham Council at age 35, later becoming the Labour leader of the Local Government Association before being elected as an MP in 2015. McMahon has previously likened his views on austerity to those of Jeremy Corbyn, writing in the New Statesman: “I think our public services are buckling under the cuts.”
Alex Norris and Rushanara Ali are the department’s parliamentary under-secretaries of state, along with Baroness Sharon Taylor and Lord Wajid Khan.
Each has some familiarity with the brief: Ali sat on the Communities and Local Government Committee from 2016 to 2017; Khan, a former opposition whip in the House of Lords who has said he was motivated to develop community cohesion projects by the 2001 Burnley race riots, has been shadow spokesperson for levelling up, housing, communities, and local government since 2021; and Norris became shadow levelling up minister the same year. Norris is, however, perhaps best known for his viral moment in 2020 when he was caught placing his head in his hands during a speech to the House of Commons by then-health secretary Matt Hancock on issues surrounding Covid test-and-trace capabilities.
Taylor has enjoyed an esteemed career in local government, having been first elected to Stevenage Borough Council in 1997, going on to become deputy leader and then leader before leaving the council in 2022. She is against cutting funding to local councils and was a champion for those in the private rented sector during debates on the renters reform bill in the last parliamentary session.
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