Former business secretary Sajid Javid has been appointed as Communities and Local Government Secretary in Theresa May’s new cabinet.

He is the son of a Pakistan-born bus driver and is MP for Bromsgrove.

A Thatcherite, he went to state school in Bristol before becoming a successful investment banker with Deutsche Bank, where his salary was said to be £3m a year.

Elected in 2010, his rise has been meteoric, with roles including that of culture minister.

As business secretary he provoked controversy by taking his daughter on a business trip to Australia, at a time when the Welsh steel industry was collapsing.

He was a leadership contender for the Tory party, on a joint ticket with Stephen Crabb which would have seen Crabb as Prime Minister and Javid as Chancellor.

In his new role, Javid will be in overall charge of housing and planning and after today’s House of Lords report calling for many more new homes to be built, will be under pressure. In March this year he hit out over plans from Redditch Borough Council to build 2,800 new homes in his constituency on the Green Belt.

Brandon Lewis, the former planning and housing minister, has been appointed Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service at the Home Office.