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Category: government and politics
With a truly discouraging figure of seventeen housing ministers chosen and replaced since 2010 (an average rate of more than one minister per year), landlords would be forgiven for not jumping for joy at the news of yet another new appointee.
However, many are cautiously optimistic that this Labour government’s first housing minister has real experience in the private rented sector and will put it to good use.
Shortly after Angela Rayner’s appointment as housing secretary, Matthew Pennycook was confirmed as Labour’s housing minister.
Like many in the party, Pennycook is known to have a pro-tenant slant, though he is also considered to have a methodical approach to his work. This was shown by the sharp scrutiny he gave to the Renters Reform Bill. Some industry analysts consider this a good sign. In addition, he is concerned with boosting the economy and tackling the housing crisis – not so different from his predecessors on that front.
Background information
Matthew Pennycook has been a lifelong Labourite, having joined the party at the age of nineteen. In 2015, he was elected as MP for Greenwich and Woolwich and has been re-elected for this position several times. His appointment as Minister of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is so far the pinnacle of his political career.
Remarkably, Pennycook has been opposed to new property development projects in the past. His reasons were that planned high rises proposed were going to be too tall. He has also argued against the common party line that building more homes will automatically resolve the issues surrounding affordability of housing.
Will he be any good for landlords?
Considering Labour’s – and almost every relevant party’s – unfortunate track record of blaming landlords for the housing crisis, and their wider anti-landlord rhetoric, it’s understandable for the sector to be sceptical of any reforms Pennycook may be planning to implement. There is a high probability that some will give more power to tenants than landlords.
Among the policies Pennycook has helped to influence include Labour’s campaigns against ‘bidding wars’ being fought between landlords, tenants and letting agencies. On the flipside, he proposed a more concerning policy that would prevent landlords from putting a property on the market for two years after the start of a tenancy.
Labour’s goal with selecting their new cabinet is to push back against the “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” impression that the previous Conservative government generated by their decade-long habit of cycling new housing ministers in and out of office. Despite widespread criticism of Labour’s conservative (with a small ‘C’) policies, some changes to the system are undoubtedly inbound.
Time will tell if Pennycook proves to have the stamina for the role. Across the whole political spectrum, one hope that almost everyone shares is that he stays in this position long enough to bring some stability to the office, giving the government a needed kick to finally resolve the housing emergency. We also wish him the best of luck.
