Pennycook keeps housing brief following reshuffle of junior ministers

Matthew Pennycook has held onto the housing brief in Keir Starmer’s reshuffle of junior ministers.

Pennycook remains as housing minister alongside a string of new appointments prompted by the resignation of former housing secretary Angela Rayner last Friday.

Pennycook was appointed housing minister in July last year following Labour’s general election victory. Former environment secretary Steve Reed has replaced Rayner as housing secretary.

Some 23 MPs were appointed in junior ministerial roles over the weekend, although discussions over specific briefs are understood to be still ongoing.

Construction minister Sarah Jones has moved to the Home office as a minister of state, although it is currently unclear who her replacement is.

The Department for Business and Trade, which contains the construction brief, has appointed two new junior ministers, Kate Dearden and Blair McDougall, both of whom were elected last year and have been promoted to their first ministerial roles.

New appointments at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government include Alison McGovern, former minister of state at the Department for Work and Pensions Alison, who has been handed a role as a minister of state with her brief yet to be finalised.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, another MP from the 2024 intake, has moved into the department as parliamentary under-secretary of state from a previous role in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Fahnbulleh was chief executive of left-wing think tank the New Economics Foundation from 2017 to 2023.

Samantha Dixon has also been appointed as under-secretary of state in the housing department. 

Michael Shanks has been appointed as minister of state in both DESNZ and the business department, while Kate White and Martin McCluskey have both been made parliamentary under-secretary of states at DESNZ.

Peter Hendy has retained his role as rail minister in the Department for Transport, as has parliamentary under-secretary of state for local transport Simon Lightwood. 

Keir Mather, another 2024 intake MP, has been appointed a parliamentary under-secretary of state role in the department.