Beckett takes over housing after Government reshuffle

Margaret Beckett has replaced Caroline Flint as housing minister in a Government reshuffle which also saw the prime minister create a new department which will focus on energy and climate change issues. Flint has been moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The new Communities and Local Government ministerial team now includes Sadiq Khan MP, who joins as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, replacing Parmjit Dhanda.

Following the announcement, communities secretary Hazel Blears said: "I'm very pleased to welcome Margaret Beckett and Sadiq Khan to their new ministerial appointments as part of the team.

"We've started some vital work over the past year. Now it's time to see it through. It will be a challenge, especially in tough economic times; but I know we have a strong ministerial team and a dedicated department that will continue to make a real difference."

Housing minister Margaret Beckett, who will have a seat in the Cabinet like her predecessor, said: "I am very pleased to be taking forward this important agenda. My priority will be to help overcome the challenges in the housing market caused by the current global turbulence, whilst maintaining our focus on delivering the affordable homes needed to meet long-term demand.

"I will continue to ensure the support is in place for vulnerable households facing difficulties right now, as well as for first-time buyers aspiring to get on to the housing ladder, and for the house building industry so it is ready for recovery."

Beckett is one of Labour's longest-serving and experienced Cabinet ministers. Her most recent Government post was foreign secretary between May 2006 and June 2007.

The reshuffle has also brought new ministers into the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
 
Jane Kennedy, who replaces Phil Woolas as environment minister, moves from the Treasury. Among her responsibilities will be flooding, waste and recycling, coastal erosion and the Environment Agency. She is joined at the department by Huw Irranca-Davies, who was a minister at the Wales Office. His in-tray includes land management, national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Natural England, forestry, soil and sustainable rural communities.

The creation of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), with Ed Miliband as secretary of state, means a second stint as energy minister for Mike O'Brien who was most recently pensions minister and before that solicitor general.

The department, which has changed the administrative geography of Whitehall, subsumes the energy and climate change policy responsibilities once with Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr) and Defra.

It will handle the consents regime for new power stations and oil and gas industry licensing as well as policy on heat, energy efficiency, coal, nuclear, combined heat and power and community heating.

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Roger Milne

9 October 2008