The industry has hailed the return of Angela Rayner to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a move bringing continuity and certainty to the UK’s housing agenda.
Rayner played a key role in developing Labour’s housing and planning policies as housing secretary from July 2024 to September 2025, before resigning following a scandal relating to underpayment of tax on a property she owned.
She rejoined the cabinet on Monday (20 July), hours after Andy Burnham was appointed prime minister. It was also confirmed that Matthew Pennycook would continue as housing minister and would now join the cabinet alongside Rayner.
Maria Harris, chair of the Open Property Data Association, said Rayner’s return should be “welcomed across the sector”, adding that her “existing knowledge and engagement should allow her to hit the ground running”.
She added: “She has a strong understanding of the challenges facing the housing market and a genuine passion for housing policy, and had already begun building constructive relationships with industry stakeholders before leaving the role.”
Danny Pinder, director of policy at industry body Real Estate:UK, agreed that both Rayner and Pennycook should be “quick to settle into the brief and continue to push forward on the housing agenda” under Burnham.
He added: “She [Rayner] has a proven track record of affecting outcomes for the department through the crossfire model and cross-cabinet machinery.
“Rayner was clearly instrumental in getting the significant quantum of funding for [the £39bn Social and Affordable Housing Programme]. She was also clearly engaged with the work of building what that programme looks like. That has to be positive in terms of continuity and not creating a period of uncertainty or disruption.”
However, he warned that Rayner was an “unknown quantity with regard to rent controls”, which were “on our radar” and a “cause for concern”.
Pinder added: “The sector has taken comfort from the outgoing government’s position on rent controls. Pennycook remaining is helpful in that regard, in that he understands the issues and the considerations.”
Ian Fletcher, senior policy and enterprise adviser at The Property Institute, said Rayner’s return was “positive” and she would boost “Burnham’s drive for more council housing”.
He added: “You underestimate her at your peril. She has done a lot more in shadow government and government than people give her credit for, and she will be able to focus on her ministerial brief without the distraction of being deputy PM.”
Fletcher said he expected Rayner would work to “taper away” from ground rents at a quicker rate, and push for “faster progress on building remediation, which may be bad news for the nation’s developers”.
He said: “I suspect she is a rent controller at heart. It was good to have [previous chancellor Rachel] Reeves as a bulwark against rent controls. Pennycook has been quite strident in the past in ruling them out. But Burnham and the likes of [new energy secretary] Miatta Fahnbulleh are undoubtedly advocates.”
John Baird, planning partner at Osbourne Clarke, said the reintroduction of Rayner should result in a more planning decisions being called in by government.
“Compared to Steve Reed, she called in and recovered a lot more of the appeals application,” he said. “I don’t think anything’s changed on that. Since she left the post, it’s been harder to get things called in my experience.”
However, Baird noted the Burnham has plans to push “more devolution and planning powers into cities,” while Rayner has previously been interventionist and introduced rules dictating the type of applications which should be determined by officers and those that should go to committee.
“That’s taking power away from people, and I’m not necessarily saying that’s a bad thing because there are elements of nimbyism that will always be there, but you’ve also got a prime minister who is supporting devolution.
“Will they be comfortable bed fellows or not?”
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