The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has had its name changed to become the ‘Department for Levelling Up’ under Michael Gove’s leadership.
Gove will head up the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a role that will see him responsible for delivering “improvements to every part of the UK”, Downing Street has said.
The new name removes “local government” from the department’s title, as Gove expands his Whitehall empire, just days after emerging as one of the big winners in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle.
At the same time former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane has been appointed head of a new levelling up taskforce formed jointly by Gove and the prime minister.
Gove has also been given the title of minister for intergovernmental relations with responsibility for UK governance and elections and co-ordinating with the devolved administrations.
Reflecting on the Levelling Up agenda, Gove said: “With a superb team of ministers and officials in a new department, our relentless focus will be on delivering for those overlooked families and undervalued communities across the United Kingdom.
“We have a unique opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives.”
Announcing the appointments, Boris Johnson commented: “This government is committed to uniting and levelling up every part of the UK and I am determined that as we build back better from the pandemic we are geared up with the teams and expertise to deliver on that promise.
“Andy is uniquely qualified to lead our efforts to raise living standards, spread opportunity, improve our public services and restore people’s sense of pride in their communities.
“I look forward to working with him, and with my new ministerial team, to deliver the opportunities this country needs.”
Comments (10)
I’m less cynical. After, 10+ Housing Ministers in the past 15 years perhaps we should see it as promising that a heavy-hitter gets their hands on the dept. I’m no huge fan of Gove but he appears to have Boris’ trust, whereas past Housing Ministers were fairly junior. And, yes, I know that Gove is technically the boss of the Housing Minister, but you get my point.
Its quite clear Gove will Level – up Tenants by Levelling DOWN Landlords, even further.
And since when has that ever been an endorsement?!
Both are idiots with no concept of the industry, who will simply create policies that grab the most votes while screw*ng over anyone in their path. That’s not to say their predecessors were any better, but they will in no way make changes for the better.
What an utterly pointless waste of time and money. You can almost hear the conversation between Gove and the civil servants…
“What exciting, innovative, vote-winning stuff can you come up with then?
“Er, how about changing the name of the department again?”
“Fantastic, do it right away”
They’d be better off spending the money on giving Gove dancing lessons.
What do they mean by “levelling up” ?
Which areas will be “levelled down” to compensate ?
Levelling -up means many different things but what this government are going to do is focus on Housing and Landlords are going to ‘ pay ‘ the bill for redistributing the playing field to be more in favour of previous Labour voters. !!!
There are 90 Tory MPs who are Landlords !
They may have one or two properties they rent, but that does not form a significant element of their income, as they ‘ Trouser ‘ more money from ministerial salaries and expenses and … ‘other business interests than ‘Rock the Political boat’
3 tenants not liking this I see 😉
Another day another clone.