Steve Reed to lead on nation’s housing

Following Angela Rayner’s resignation, Keir Starmer has chosen the former environment secretary to succeed her as secretary of state for housing, communities, and local government. 

Reed was elected to government in 2012 and served in various shadow cabinet roles, including as shadow secretary of state for communities and local government from April 2020 to November 2021.

He will now be tasked with taking over where Rayner left off, leading on one of the pivotal departments for the Labour government.

Since coming into power, Labour has pledged to build 1.5m homes in its term and has also sought to shake up the planning system in order to speed up the application process via its Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Rayner resigned today amid a backlash over the amount of stamp duty paid on an £800,000 apartment she bought in Hove.

She was a key figure in government, given her other role as the country’s deputy prime minister.

Before her resignation, questions swirled around whether Rayner had intentionally or mistakenly paid the lesser amount of £30,000, rather than the £70,000 owed for stamp duty on a second home.

Complications around a former property being put in a trust for her son and whether or not she had sought sufficient legal counsel on the matter led to Rayner referring herself to a government watchdog.

In the end, the independent advisor on ministerial standards concluded that ‘her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the ‘highest possible standards of proper conduct’.’