THE PROLOGUE:
Government is now pretty much in place, just a few appointments left to be made, dust to settle and policies to start emerging. Now that we are, as a country, back in business, we will not only watch with interest but hopefully, as an industry, be involved constructively in how policy is shaped and emerges. In every sense this is going to be an extremely interesting parliament.
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The junior ministerial appointments in the relevant departments have been confirmed as follows:
DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Minister of State – Greg Clark MP
Minister of State – Grant Shapps MP
HM TREASURY
Financial Secretary – Mark Hoban MP
Economic Secretary – Justine Greening MP
Exchequer Secretary – David Gauke MP
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Minister of State – Charles Hendry MP
Minister of State – Gregory Barker MP
DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT
Minister of State – Theresa Villiers MP
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Minister of State – James Paice MP
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The range of appointments is interesting and reflects the need for the coalition to demonstrate stability and clear direction from the outset. The majority of the appointees are people who have been on the front benches for some time and who are regarded as having a good grasp of issues and strong competencies in terms of understanding and delivering on a brief. Of note is that fact that all of these junior ministers are Conservative – perhaps giving a steer to the markets, industry and the public that key commitments will look to be delivered.
The confirmation of Grant Shapps as Housing Minister combined with Eric Pickles as Secretary of State indicates that DCLG is likely to push forward with many of the reforms as originally proposed in the Conservative Manifesto and the various Green Papers which were published pre-election. Both Pickles and Shapps are well-regarded and seen as able to deliver. It will be hoped that they will be able to provide some reassurance in terms of stability. They are both extremely familiar with the brief and have a clear understanding of the direction in which they would like policy to go and the role that the private sector has to play in this. We can expect to start to see some moves towards policy amendments and the industry needs to take opportunities to work with the Department. Albeit all of this will be on a reduced budget, something that Greg Clark in particular will be looking at with his Decentralisation brief. (Lib Dem, Sarah Teather, has gone to the Education Department as a junior minister).
In the Treasury, David Gauke will again be seen as a solid appointment. Gauke worked closely with Phillip Hammond when he was a Treasury Shadow on tax and financing structure issues affecting the property industry and is expected to be developing relevant policy on TIFs. He understands the issues surrounding taxation, finance and funding well. Both Shapps and Gauke are inclined to be in favour of reforming REITs to enable residential investment and looking at increasing institutional investment into the private rented sector.
Charles Hendry and Gregory Barker will be working closely with Chris Huhne on the energy and climate change brief. Under the terms of the coalition agreement it will be expected that they will lead and deliver on the nuclear commitments. This should provide some reassurance to a slightly nervous energy industry.
Theresa Villiers in DfT has held this role as a shadow. Combined with Phillip Hammond, this will be seen to provide a strong team within DfT able to deliver on some of the major infrastructure decisions such as HS2 and Crossrail – it was announced this afternoon that the new government would be pushing ahead with plans for Crossrail, quelling fears that funding would be pulled. If this speculation had been allowed to continue it could have been damaging for the outward perception of the coalition within the City.
James Paice has been a Shadow for DEFRA for several years, again with a clear understanding of the issues at hand, particularly in terms of agriculture and rural affairs. Combined with Caroline Spelman this looks like an indication to the rural and agricultural communities that the new government is intending to take seriously their issues and is ready to work with them from the outset.
I am now checking out for a day or two – unless something really very exciting happens – as I have forgotten what I used to do before there was an election…
Written by Stephen Byfield