Housing's new power brokers - Part 2

A fortnight before Labour's 1997 election triumph, Nick Raynsford told this magazine that if Tony Blair asked him to become housing minister he would "take it like a shot".

But after spending three years as housing minister-in-waiting Raynsford was to be disappointed.

"Poor Nick" was the universal refrain from the housing world when Raynsford was pipped to the housing post by Hilary Armstrong and given only a junior ministerial role.

But all good things come to those who wait. In last week's reshuffle Raynsford was finally promoted to the minister of state level and in the bargaining over portfolios has been given the bulk of responsibility for housing.

It was felt that Raynsford was initially passed up as housing minister because the Labour leadership feared he might "go native". It seemed that he may have been too close to the subject as the former director of the SHAC - the London Housing Aid Centre and as the founder of Raynsford Dallison Associates, which merged later housing consultants HACAS.

Now that he has got the job, friends of Raynsford warn that he will offer no special favours just because he is well known in the sector.

Adrian Norridge, chief executive of St Pancras HA has been a friend of Raynsford since they served together on Hammersmith and Fulham's housing committee in early 1970s. He says: "As someone who believes in ensuring that people have good homes, he's always been "native"."

But he claims that Raynsford has too much integrity to offer any special favours to the sector. Former colleague, HACAS director Jeff Zitron, claims that Raynsford's knowledge of the sector will actually make him a tougher minister to deal with. "I think he will be the most creative housing minister since Anthony Crosland and the toughest since John Stanley," he says.

Zitron adds: "People are forever telling ministers that you can't do this or that's not possible, but he will know that it is possible because he's done it. That's why he'll be demanding, people won't be able to give him the brush off."

Raynsford is known as someone with a passion for practical solutions and detail rather than ideology. Norridge says: "Being pragmatic and practical always sounds terribly down beat. But with Nick it's the opposite - he's a real solution finder."

It is said that civil servants and fellow ministers within the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions regard Raynsford as the school swot. When the Housing Corporation chief executive Anthony Mayer briefed DETR ministers on the detail of the Urban Task Force report it was only Raynsford who showed any real interest. He grilled Mayer on the detail of the report while other ministers looked bored.

He will be in the rare position for a minister of state of knowing at least as much about his brief as his civil servants. "What Nick doesn't know about housing isn't worth knowing," says Ross Fraser, director of professional practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Raynsford's housing expertise in one area in particular will be especially useful over the coming year or so. He is one of the few people in country justifiably to claim to understand the intricacies of housing benefit - in the 1980s he wrote a guide on the subject.

Such knowledge is likely to prove invaluable in the forthcoming negotiations with the Treasury over the Green Paper on rents and housing benefit. The Treasury has its sights on the troublesome benefit because it is standing in the way of Chancellor Gordon Brown's welfare to work ambitions. But few in the Treasury have got to grips with the benefit, which is partly why the subject was fudged in the comprehensive spending review.

The Chancellor's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan appeared to sum up a the Treasury attitude when he said: "Life is too short to understand housing benefit."

Raynsford should help the DETR stand up to some of the Treasury's more destructive plans for housing benefit in a way than that Hilary Armstrong perhaps could not have done.

One source said: "He'll be more helpful on welfare reform, there was a feeling that Hilary was not big on housing benefit."

Zitron says: "He is very well placed to get the best deal for social housing from the housing benefit system, because he understands it so well."

On most of the other aspects of housing policy the ministerial line on housing is unlikely to change much. Raynsford like Armstrong has a strong track record on tenant involvement. He is also known to be keen to pursue Best Value and the modernisation of local government.

The one possible change is that Raynsford could lean more towards housing associations than councils. The public line is unlikely to change, but by instinct and background Raynsford is perhaps even keener on stock transfers than his predecessor.

"He's has certainly got more knowledge and empathy with housing associations than Hilary," said one source.

But as Raynsford is claimed to be the inventor of local housing companies, the traditional divide between either councils or housing associations is likely to continue to be blurred.

Zitron says: "He's interested in housing providers doing more than the tradition landlord role, he will be expecting people to take that up in a very broad way. I don't think he's going to be wedded to conventional ways of owning and managing housing."