Gove returns as Housing Secretary

Michael Gove has been reappointed as Housing Secretary, just over 3 months after he was sacked from the role by Boris Johnson.

The new Prime Minister – Rishi Sunak, reappointed Michael Gove as Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities on Tuesday 25^th October, following a major cabinet reshuffle.

The appointment is a return for Mr Gove, who spent 10 months in the role between September 2021 and July 2022. He was eventually sacked by the Prime Minister at the time - Boris Johnson, just days before the then PM announced his own resignation.

Gove is expected to continue with his programme to regulate the housing sector and the reforming of housing planning, as well as the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.

During his time as Housing Secretary, Gove changed many policies that were put into place by his predecessor Robert Jenrick and he made significant progress on a number of key housing issues that affected the property sector and residents.

Most notably, back in January 2022, Gove announced government plans to introduce a £4bn fund to remove unsafe cladding on buildings between 11 and 18 metres tall, with developers asked to foot this bill. At the time, he said leaseholders were ‘shouldering a desperately unfair burden’ and that it was ‘morally wrong’ that they should be paying for remediation.

In addition, the Social Housing Regulation Bill was put before parliament during Gove’s tenure, while the Renters Reform Bill was also published during his time as Housing Secretary. The white paper included a plan to scrap ‘no-fault’ evictions.

On new homes, Gove was quoted as saying that he did not want the 300,000-homes-a-year figure to be a “Procrustean bed”, and called for more focus on quality rather than just numbers.

Gove’s return as Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing & Communities makes him the 13^th appointment in the position since 2005 – taking into account that both he and Greg Clark will have served as secretary in this role twice.

During 12 years of Conservative government, there have now been 7 different Secretaries of State in the position – starting with Eric Pickles in 2010 who held the post for 5 years followed briefly by Greg Clark, Sajid Javid, James Brokenshire, Robert Jenrick, Michael Gove, Greg Clark again and latterly Simon Clarke who was appointed by Liz Truss and only stayed in the role for 7 weeks.

Propertymark’s Head of Policy & Campaigns, Timothy Douglas, said about Gove’s appointment, “The Levelling-up agenda and reforms to the private rented sector in England would appear to be back and will take centre stage in the new government as Michael Gove returns to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

“Mr Gove previously focussed on regional disparities and fixing the cladding scandal, but he now needs to go further and tackle the supply crisis in the private rented sector, implement the next steps for leasehold reform, set out the UK Government’s plans for home buying and selling as well engage with the sector to get more people onto the housing ladder and stimulate right sizing to release large, family homes.”

British Property Federation’s Chief Executive, Melanie Leech said “Michael Gove will be able to hit the ground running and we look forward to working with him again. The property industry is a critical partner on levelling-up and by unlocking investment we can deliver the changes we need to see in our communities up and down the country.

“This summer we lost vital time on delivering on the Government’s agenda and urgently need a consistent and steady hand on the key issues of the day – housing supply, regeneration and net zero – which are all critical to the UK’s growth ambitions and international competitiveness.”