What does the appointment of Steve Reed as new housing secretary mean for housebuilding?

By Tom Lowe and Dave Rogers2025-09-09T10:11:00

Angela Rayner’s replacement held the shadow housing brief in 2021 and now he returns to the role in government. But although he has promised to ‘build, baby, build’, Reed lacks the influence on Keir Starmer that his predecessor had

Probably not since John Prescott has there been a prominent, household-name politician so closely associated with government ambitions to build its way out of the country’s housing market failure as Angela Rayner.

While in opposition, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves would regularly be pictured in hi-viz and hard hats and once the 2024 general election swept Labour into power it was Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, who seemed to understand, like Prescott, the importance of housing development - including affordable housing - as well as planning reform.

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