Labour Reveals Full Shadow Housing Team

Labour has announced the full line-up of its seven-strong shadow housing team. Leader Jeremy Corbyn re-appointed John Healey secretary of state for housing, despite his resignation in the summer. Mr Healey revealed Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter would join as shadow housing and shadow London minister – the joint portfolio occupied in government by Gavin Barwell. Read the full team on the Parliament website.

New Housing Ministerial Team In Shadow Cabinet

Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader he has appointed Jon Trickett as Shadow Communities Secretary and John Healey as Shadow Housing & Planning Minister. Jon Trickett has been MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire since 1996. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary for Prime Minister Gordon Brown between 2008 and 2010. He was then promoted by Ed Milliband to Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office.  John Healey is MP for Wentworth & Dearne. He was Labour's last Housing Minister serving in the Cabinet from 2008 to 2010. Previously he was Minister for Local Government and both Economic & Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Benn to Shadow Pickles In Milliband Reshuffle

Hilary Benn will be facing Eric Pickles at the dispatch box after his appointment as Communities and Local Government Secretary in Labour’s shadow cabinet reshuffle. Benn replaces Caroline Flint who moves to the energy and climate change portfolio. Former Housing Minister John Healey has left the opposition front benches, and Alison Seabeck has lost the housing brief she previously held, becoming Shadow Defence Minister. Seabeck said that the housing review she was working on with Caroline Flint has already been submitted to Ed Miliband. Seabeck is replaced by Jack Dromey. Dromey is MP for Birmingham Erdington, entering parliament in 2010 after a career of more than three decades in the trade union movement. The husband of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman, Dromey was a member of the policy forum that produced Labour's 2007 Green Paper ‘Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable’ in 2007. He is also a supporter of the pressure group Defend Council Housing. The full shadow communities and local government team is:
Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP
Jack Dromey MP
Helen Jones MP
Roberta Blackman-Woods MP
Chris Williamson MP
Lord (Bill) McKenzie
Lord (Sir Jeremy) Beecham

New Shadow Housing Minister Named

Alison Seabeck has been announced as the new shadow housing minister. She will work with one of Labour's former housing ministers, Caroline Flint, who was appointed shadow secretary for Communities and Local Government in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet.  Seabeck, the MP for Plymouth Moor View, was parliamentary adviser to former housing minister Nick Raynsford for 12 years, focusing on housing, planning and local government. She will work alongside Jack Dromey, who has been tasked with covering housing, regeneration, and the big society. Read the full story on Introducer Today.

Miliband Announces Shadow CLG Team

The Labour Party has announced the MPs who will work with Caroline Flint to shadow the CLG.  Alison Seabeck, Barbara Keeley, Jack Dromey, and Chris Williamson will work alongside Ms Flint, who was handed the job of shadow communities secretary last week. The party has not yet announced which of the MPs will take on the shadow housing brief. Mr Dromey, the MP for Birmingham, Erdington, has been a prominent advocate of the need for more affordable housing and supporter of pressure group Defend Council Housing.  Read more on Inside Housing.