Who is the new Secretary of State for Levelling Up?

Who is Simon Clarke? Here is everything we have found out about the new housing minister…

Prime minister Liz Truss has appointed Simon Clarke (Middlesborough & East Cleveland MP since 2017) to replace Greg Clark as the new Minister for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Simon Clarke recently tweeted he will “miss Boris Johnson enormously” and is considered just like Liz Trust to be a ‘Johnson loyalist’.

The role is taken in the backdrop of skyrocketing rents, a cost of living crisis and successive interest rate hikes… We are sure it will be a challenging role!

Serving as the youngest cabinet minister within the department, he was previously appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, before being moved to the post of Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government in the February 2020 reshuffle. He resigned from the position for personal reasons later that year.

Clarke was born near Middlesborough in the village of Marton and trained as a solicitor in London before going to work for Dominic Raab (former Deputy Prime Minister).

Top of Clarke’s intray will be the Rental Reform Bill, which the government recently published its white paper for. It is set to remove Section 21 evictions, encourage pet ownership in rental properties, and introduce a rental sector ombudsman.

Rumour has it that the will bill will remain but could be watered down.

We will of course be interested to hear the new administrations approach to building new homes.