Housing Minister - Puppet on a string

You'll have seen the announcement of the latest housing minister appointment. Rachel Maclean is the new minister since the cabinet reshuffle on 7th February 2023. The position has become a bit of a joke with a constant merry-go-round of appointment. To me it's just the latest 'puppet on a string'.

Before I go into my own thoughts on the consequences of such a flippant attitude to what should be a pivotal role in the government, I wanted to highlight some facts and figures.

1. Rachel, the latest puppet (I'm sure she's a lovely Tory) is the 15th since 2010.
2. Some rough maths tells us the average tenure of a housing minister is therefore just under 11 months.
3. If you take away Grant Shapps miraculous stay of 2 years and 4 months that brings the average time in position to approx 9.5 months.
4. The last four have been a joke. Look at this:
5. The Institute for Government (IfG), which aims to improve the way the UK is run, says "constant ministerial turnover" is damaging.

• Stuart Andrew (5 months)
• Marcus Jones (2 months)
• Lee Rowley (7 weeks)
• Lucy Frazer (3 months)

1. They also said "Housing in particular has seen a huge amount of turnover in recent years, which will have had an inevitable effect on how the relevant departments have been able to deliver policy."
2. The post and its purpose will never be taken seriously until government and prime ministers stop seeing it as a stepping stone to other, dare I say more important positions.
3. Similar to the above, the post is not seen as important enough as it is not a vote winner, well it certainly seems so with the reigning party.
4. And finally, it is seen as a promotion moving to culture media and sport secretary from housing. I personally love a bit of culture and love my sport, but come on. There is a housing crisis with folks living in properties of serious disrepair, many suffering as a result. There are not enough affordable homes. There is also a worry that housing conditions are getting worse not better.

The above highlights the puppet on a string theory just about as perfectly as I can state, but wanted to add a few more points that I believe shows the real danger in the governments attitude.

Those who work in the sector from housing officers to chief executives are with every new ministerial change becoming more and more demoralised and quite rightly so have lost faith in the ability to see policy carried out, never mind set. I do believe recent bills and directives have been positive, especially holding landlords more to account on such areas as disrepair, mould, damp and so on. But hold on. It's easy enough to set a new bill, but in reality it's the doing part that a minister should stay the course