New Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed Simon Clarke as the new Housing Secretary replacing Greg Clark.
Clark himself replaced Michael Gove after he was sacked by then outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson following the slew of resignations that led to his undoing.
Clark spent less than two months in the role having been appointed on July 7th.
Before his appointment, Clarke praised the outgoing Secretary for his handling of the brief.
Clarke now joins the ongoing merry-go-round of secretary and ministerial level appointments at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland was first elected in 2017 and returns to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities following a stint as Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government in 2020.
He left the department in September of that year resigning for personal reasons. He returned to Government in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
What does Truss have in plan for the housing and mortgage markets?
While the Cost of Living crisis has dominated the agenda Truss has given pointers on her views of the housing and mortgage markets.
In a Liz for Leader email to Conservative members, she pledged “abolish Soviet top-down housing targets”.
The now Prime Minister also touched on potential plans to expand urban density by building higher-rise accommodation.
She has also vowed to change how mortgages are assessed. Truss said she would support more first-time buyers into homeownership by allowing rent payments to be used as part of the affordability assessment for a mortgage.
This pledge looks set to form part of the mortgage market review announced by Johnson prior to his departure.
She’s also said she will maintain the Bank of England’s (BoE) independence, although she wants to reassess its mandate.
Speaking of the BoE in an ITV debate she said: “I completely support the Bank of England’s independence… the last time the mandate was set was in 1997, in completely different times.”
Additionally, Truss pledged to continue with the Government’s levelling up agenda by creating a funding formula to support struggling areas.
