Another new housing minister! Welcome, Dominic Raab

The seventh housing minister to hold the post since 2010 was announced yesterday, replacing Alok Sharma who held the post for just seven months – the shortest ever tenure for a housing minister.

Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey took up the position as part of the Prime Minister’s reshuffle, heading up the newly re-named Ministry or Housing, Communities and Local Government. Previously a junior minister within the Ministry of Justice since 2015, Raab has been an MP for seven years, and has enjoyed a previous successful career in law.

Despite only having been in the role for 24 hours, there are already concerns about how long Raab will last in the job. There are calls for the Prime Minister to leave the new minister in the job for long enough for him to make a difference, stating that ‘the broken housing market desperately needs some continuity’.

Previous minister Alok Sharma has been praised by many for his time spent travelling the UK meeting tenants and local landlords, gathering information to create the Social Housing Green Paper. Experts are calling for new minister Rabb to continue with this work in order to enable him to understand and tackle the challenges faced by the social housing sector.

Critics have bashed Sharma for being ‘invisible’ during his time in post, however he has overseen some serious changes to the industry during the short period he headed up the nations housing.

The Grenfell Tower tragedy struck the day after he took up office – a tragedy which has brought safety and effective property management into the forefront of everyone’s minds. Sharma also oversaw the introduction of the draft Tenant Fees Bill, something which will revolutionise the way the rental market operates in the future. Although he has taken criticism for seemily ‘not doing anything’ during his time, Sharma leaves behind a legacy which will continue to impact the way the rental market operates for years to come.