Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a senior minister in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). As a Cabinet-level position, the office holder is responsible for housing, planning, and local government policy in England.

United Kingdom Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Steve Reed since 5 September 2025
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Style	The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Type	Minister of the Crown
Status	Secretary of State
Member of	Cabinet Privy Council
Reports to	The Prime Minister
Seat	Westminster
Nominator	The Prime Minister
Appointer	The Monarch (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Term length	At His Majesty's Pleasure
Formation	5 May 2005: (as Minister of State for Communities and Local Government) 18 September 2021: (as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) 8 July 2024: (as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government)
First holder	David Miliband (as Minister of Communities and Local Government)
Deputy	Minister of State for Housing and Planning
Salary	£159,038 per annum (2022) (including £86,584 MP salary)
Website	www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government

The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.

History

The Department for Communities and Local Government was created in 2006 by then British prime minister Tony Blair to replace John Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which had taken on the local government and regions portfolios from the defunct Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in 2002.

The secretary of state took over the responsibilities of the minister of state for communities and local government. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Then prime minister Boris Johnson 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 Keir Starmer renamed the department as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 8 July 2024, retiring the levelling up moniker.

Responsibilities

According to the UK government, the secretary of state has overall strategic oversight of the department’s business and policy in areas including:

• housing and planning
• local government and English devolution
• regional and local growth
• communities and faith
• democracy and elections
• public appointments
• planning casework
• corporate functions

List of secretaries of state and ministers

Minister of Communities and Local Government
Minister			Term of office		Party	Ministry
		David Miliband MP for South Shields	5 May 2005	5 May 2006	Labour	Blair III
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Secretary of State			Term of office		Party	Ministry
		Ruth Kelly MP for Bolton West	6 May 2006	28 June 2007	Labour	Blair III
		Hazel Blears MP for Salford	28 June 2007	5 June 2009	Labour	Brown
		John Denham MP for Southampton Itchen	5 June 2009	11 May 2010	Labour
		Eric Pickles MP for Brentwood and Ongar	12 May 2010	11 May 2015	Conservative	Cameron–Clegg (Con.–L.D.)
		Greg Clark MP for Tunbridge Wells	11 May 2015	14 July 2016	Conservative	Cameron II
		Sajid Javid MP for Bromsgrove	14 July 2016	8 January 2018	Conservative	May I
						May II
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Secretary of State			Term of office		Party	Ministry
		Sajid Javid MP for Bromsgrove	8 January 2018	30 April 2018	Conservative	May II
		James Brokenshire MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup	30 April 2018	24 July 2019	Conservative
		Robert Jenrick MP for Newark	24 July 2019	15 September 2021	Conservative	Johnson I
						Johnson II
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Secretary of State			Term of office		Party	Ministry
		Michael Gove MP for Surrey Heath	15 September 2021	6 July 2022	Conservative	Johnson II
		Greg Clark MP for Tunbridge Wells	7 July 2022	6 September 2022	Conservative
		Simon Clarke MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland	6 September 2022	25 October 2022	Conservative	Truss
		Michael Gove MP for Surrey Heath	25 October 2022	5 July 2024	Conservative	Sunak
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Secretary of State			Term of office		Party	Ministry
		Angela Rayner MP for Ashton under Lyne	5 July 2024	5 September 2025	Labour	Starmer
		Steve Reed MP for Streatham and Croydon North	5 September 2025	Incumbent

Timeline of secretaries of state