The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom and is the Cabinet minister responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). They are responsible for local government in England. The office holder works alongside the other ministers in the department. The corresponding shadow minister is the

shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government The shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a position with the UK Opposition's Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK), Shadow Cabinet; if the opposition party forms a new government, the designated person is ...

. The current minister is

Angela Rayner Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since 2024 United Kingdom general election, Jul ...

, who was appointed to the role under

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...

on 5 July 2024.

History

The Department of Communities and Local Government was created in 2006 by then

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

to replace

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (31 May 1938 – 20 November 2024) was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the ...

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

, which had taken on the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

and

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

portfolios from the defunct

Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions The secretary of state for transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

in 2002. The secretary of state took over the responsibilities of the

minister of state for communities and local government The position of Minister of State for Communities and Local Government was a cabinet-level position in the United Kingdom Government. It was created by Tony Blair in 2005 following his victory in the general election of that year. The minister h ...

. This post, within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was created in 2005, on the transfer of several functions from the deputy prime minister himself. Then prime minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

renamed the position Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and gave the secretary and the department responsibility for carrying out the promise in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto of " levelling up". Labour prime minister

renamed the department as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 8 July 2024, retiring the levelling up monicker.

Responsibilities

The secretary of state's responsibilities include: * Housing and planning * Local government and English devolution * Regional and local growth * Communities and faith * Democracy and elections

List of secretaries of state and ministers

Timeline of secretaries of state

References

Notelist

{{Cabinet positions in the United Kingdom Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Housing ministers of the United Kingdom