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Angela Rayner replaces Lisa Nandy in shadow cabinet shake-up
Labour MP Angela Rayner has replaced Lisa Nandy as the shadow housing secretary.
Ms Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party and MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, announced earlier today that she has been appointed as the shadow secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities.
She replaces Ms Nandy, who has been in the role since November 2021.
The Labour MP for Wigan has been appointed as the shadow cabinet minister for international development, as reports have suggested that Keir Starmer is getting his top team in place before the next general election.
In June, Ms Nandy told the Housing 2023 conference in Manchester that the Labour Party “supports” the Right to Buy, but would go further to ensure council homes sold under the scheme are replaced.
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Asked by Inside Housing if the party would stand by its 2019 manifesto commitment to suspend it due to the shortage of social housing, she said: “We support the Right to Buy, what we don’t support is the loss of stock.
“But you have to replace like for like. When [former Labour leader Hugh] Gaitskell originally proposed the Right to Buy policy, it was about giving people the right to own their own home, to the assets that sustain you and the security and stability that working-class people have been shut out of for too long.
“But the policy was to replace every home [sold] with two new ones, so that you replenished and grow the social housing stock for future generations.”
In August, the Labour Party said it was reviewing the higher level of Right to Buy discounts imposed in 2012, but is yet to make a decision on whether to reduce them.
In July, Ms Rayner told the Local Government Association annual conference in Bournemouth that England needed to “roll its sleeve up and build things”, citing windfarms and homes.
She promised to reform planning laws to empower local authorities to build more homes within their communities.
In 2021, Ms Rayner tweeted support for building more council housing, in response to an article about rents outside of London rising at the fastest rate on record.
