Redditch MP Rachel Maclean has been appointed as minister of state in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Her appointment was announced late yesterday evening (February 7) as part of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle.
Maclean is the sixth housing minister the UK has had in the space of 12 months.
She takes over the role from Lucy Frazer who is now secretary of state for culture, media and sport.
Elected as a Conservative MP in 2017, Maclean was briefly minister of state at the Ministry of Justice during Liz Truss’s leadership.
Prior to this she served as a junior minister at the Home Office between September 2021 and July 2022, and in the Department for Transport between February 2020 and September 2021.
In her role as housing minister, Maclean will work alongside parliamentary under secretary of state for housing and homelessness, Felicity Buchan who holds responsibility for the private rental sector.
Commenting on the latest ministerial change, Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at the professional body for estate agents Propertymark said agents will “quite rightly be questioning yet another housing minister”.
“There is a desire from agents to see a consistent approach to housing and planning policy going forward,” he said.
However Douglas said Propertymark remains committed to working with the government “to ensure that there is a long-term plan for the sector and outcomes are joined up across government departments to deliver more housing, better energy efficient homes, regulation of agents and greater levels of consumer protection".
Maclean's career outside of politics included a role at HSBC where she spent time working in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.
In 2005 she set up a publishing company with her husband specialising in IT and software content and more recently co-founded a HR-software business.
jane.matthews@ft.com
