Lucy Frazer has been confirmed as the new housing minister.
The MP for South East Cambridgeshire replaces Lee Rowley, a parliamentary under secretary of state, who has been handed a local government brief.
Frazer, 50, is the fifth housing minister this year, following Chris Pincher, Stuart Andrew, Marcus Jones and Rowley.
She has previously been a minister of state at the Department for Transport from 7 September to 26 October, and was financial secretary to the Treasury from 16 September to 7 September 2022.
Frazer worked as a barrister in commercial law, becoming Queen’s Counsel a decade ago, and later entering politics and winning the South East Cambridgeshire seat at the 2015 general election.
Rowley originally appeared to have been re-appointed as the housing minister last month, but the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has updated its homepage with the new ministers:
The DLUHC ministerial team:
+ Michael Gove, secretary of state
+ Dehenna Davison, parliamentary under secretary of state
+ Lee Rowley, parliamentary under secretary of state
+ Baroness Scott of Bybrook, parliamentary under secretary of state
+ Lucy Frazer, parliamentary under secretary of state (housing minister)
Frazer’s appointment does not come as a great surprise. EYE reported earlier this week that she was performing the role of ‘housing minister’ when she, on behalf of the government, welcomed the new code of practice and independent ombudsman scheme put in place by the New Homes Quality Board (NHQB). The DLUHC has now confirmed her position.
Comments (5)
To quote Brenda from Bristol, “You’re joking! Not another one!”
Some good news for agents out there is that following heavy engagement with DLUHC by the likes of TLIC, LARG and the Zoopla LAB- DLUHC is, for the first time to my knowledge, consulting a small cohort of agents around the development of their proposed portal. Importantly, they have not just engaged with the large corporate entities, but have actually balanced their initial cohort 50/50 between corporates and smaller independent agencies.How much will they listen to our feedback remains to be seen- but this is a huge step in the right direction.
Given the history of the vast majority of HM’s to date, Lucy is a Landlord and a former practising barrister. She therefore, likely, has a good understanding of the existing regulatory landscape for Landlords and will also understand the burdens already heaped on the UK Courts system. Id like to think this should lead to some informed involvement in the ongoing Renter’s Reform and associated White paper.If a £2k donation from any source is enough to ‘buy’ any minister then we are in more trouble than we ever thought!As for her London property value/income- I believe MP’s are only required to disclose that is exceeds those thresholds.Time will tell if this IS indeed the case- and also how long she remains in situ.
I am impressed for Lucy has a good background and is a good MP who understands the way the property world works, unlike many
Fingers crossed she is not influenced by the prejudiced. I hope her strong charater talks them into a more realistic view of how life works for ‘ordinary hard working’ landlords as well as Tenants.
Wait for the next party in Government to take it seriously again.