Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been given the job of shadow housing secretary in a reshuffle announced today by leader Kier Starmer.
The move had been expected after rumours over the weekend that Rayner would be given an additional but more ‘public-facing’ job looking after a specific departmental brief.
Rayner replaces Lisa Nandy, who has been a largely invisible Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUCH) since 2021 other than executing a welcome U-turn on rent controls.
The move has been triggered by both the looming General Election and the increasingly high profile of Michael Gove, the current housing secretary heading up DLUHC.
He’s been in the headlines on an almost weekly basis including most recently promoting his more lenient approach to the higher EPC rules looming for landlords.
Mission
Gove has been, somewhat obviously, on a mission to win over wobbling Conservative voters including many private landlords who feel they’ve been unfairly targeted by higher taxes and red tape in recent years.
Rayner is Labour’s strongest card within its cabinet and will now have the job of taking on Gove – although given Labour’s track record on private rented sector reforms, she’s unlikely to be a landlord champion.
Nevertheless, Rayner recently savaged Conservative MP and Tory deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden (pictured) on the Government’s track record on landlord mortgage costs when Dowden stepped in to present PMQs when the Prime Minister was away.
BTL mortgages
She pressed him on whether landlords with BTL mortgages will be given the same financial leniency as home owners under a scheme agreed with the FCA in June.
Such support has so far failed to materialise despite warnings that landlords are being forced to pass on higher mortgage costs to tenants, and that some renters face being evicted when their landlords’ property is repossessed by a lender.
Read more: Five ways to survive losing mortgage interest tax relief.
