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Former Foreign Office junior appointed housing minister
A former junior minister in the Foreign Office has been appointed to replace Gavin Barwell as the new housing minister.
Alok Sharma, MP for Reading West, will take on the ministerial role in the Department for Communities and Local Government, the government announced today.
The housing minister role was the only minister of state role that had not been filled, four days after the election result was announced.
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Previous housing and planning minister, Mr Barwell, lost his seat in the election but has now been appointed Theresa May’s chief of staff.
Mr Sharma has generally voted in line with the government on housing-related matters. He voted in favour of the bedroom tax and has consistently voted for a reduction in welfare spending.
He has also opposed a number of housing developments in his constituency.
Honoured to be appointed Minister of State for Housing & Planning to work on building the homes #Britain needs @CommunitiesUK
— Alok Sharma (@AlokSharma_RDG)Honoured to be appointed Minister of State for Housing & Planning to work on building the homes #Britain needs @CommunitiesUK
— Alok Sharma (@AlokSharma_RDG) June 13, 2017
He has been an MP since 2010, and was appointed minister for Asia and the Pacific in July last year when Theresa May took over as prime minister.
He has also sat on the Treasury Select Committee, the Science and Technology Select Committee and was private secretary to the Treasury from 2012 to 2015.
On the parliamentary websites he lists his interests as trade, industry and finance – but not housing.
Prior to entering parliament Mr Sharma trained as a chartered accountant and then worked in banking for 16 years. Mr Sharma is the 13th housing minister in the past 16 years.
Beyond the housing sector, he has previously voted in favour of a fully elected House of Lords. He voted in favour of equal gay rights and gay marriage.
The appointment was welcomed by housing associations and sector bodies, who said they looked forward to working with Mr Sharma to solve the housing crisis.