An MP who has campaigned against “dodgy landlords” has been appointed to a key housing job in the government.
Mary Kelly Foy is among a group of MPs that have been handed new positions under recently appointed prime minister Andy Burnham.
Her new job will be as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook. She is seen as being from the hard left of the Labour Party and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
In a Facebook post, Foy said: “Delighted to be asked to join the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) team as PPS to the Minister of State, Matthew Pennycook MP – of course I accepted.
“Many constituents will know that I am often on the case about various HCLG related issues from the lack of social housing, fleecehold and dodgy landlords to name but a few.
“It’ll be a pleasure to support the Government’s work, particularly since the new Prime Minister has pledged to deliver the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period. What an exciting prospect. I can’t wait to get cracking.”
Kelly Foy is also known for her work on student housing issues in her constituency, the City of Durham.
In 2022, Foy responded to reports of students having to wait for hours outside letting agency offices, saying: “What we are witnessing in the Durham rental market is ludicrous. I have been contacted by huge numbers of students and their parents who are utterly dismayed by the chaos of spiralling rents and limited availability of housing.”
Comments (3)
Let us hope she proves more enlightening than some of her predecessors, who were simply insular and difficult, and unwilling to listen to practical industry experience.
Take Yvette Cooper, who gave the industry six weeks to implement tenancy deposit legislation. My point at the time was that there is no purpose in tenancy deposit legislation if it fails to address historic tenant deposit monies, the cash that is physically missing, having already been spent on holidays, motorcars and property. Millions and millions of pounds.
Then in 2012, Clive Betts would not listen when told that a housing benefit tenant, fully up to date with their top-up payments, was still perceived to be in arrears. This happens because Local Housing Allowance (LHA) conflates a four-weekly payment cycle with rent calculated on a 4.333 weekly basis. It is a calendar mismatch, not a tenant failing to pay.
Even now, MHCLG cannot provide guidance on the EMI structures being used for rent collection, despite confirming themselves that EMIs are not a valid solution.
Practical experience has not gone unoffered. It has been proactively provided, precisely to prevent unworkable solutions and the disruption that inevitably follows, whether through unintended consequences or consequences that are, in truth, entirely intended and simply transparent.
For the past 25 years I have been calling for housing to be constituted as a permanent apolitical statutory function, insulated from the electoral cycle in the way the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee is insulated from it. Twenty five housing ministers since 1997 is not an accident of bad luck. It is the direct consequence of never having built that structure. The industry is not without a vocal advocate who simply does not care for wrongdoing, no matter how well intentioned, and who has held a consistency of domain knowledge across every one of them.
“fleecehold”
Someone needs to check their dictations…
What about dodgy housing ministers ie Angela Rayner.