Simon Clarke has been appointed as the UK’s latest housing secretary, the fourth person to take on the role this year.

Liz Truss’ choice is 37 years old and most recently served as chief secretary to the treasury. Before that he worked as minister of state at the ministry of housing, communities and local government, where he took on regional growth duties.

At a speech given at the Policy that Works conference in March 2022, Clarke stated that when forming policy, the civil service should be “daring”, perhaps giving an insight into his ethos.

He said: “That doesn’t mean trying out a brand new idea every time on 60 million people, but it does mean making room for active exploration and testing and promising ideas.

“So please do be daring and be robust. Let’s dare to try out the best ideas that we have and dare to fail as well. Crucially, dare to fail but to fail fast by understanding what it is that’s going wrong, seeing if something can be improved with a programme.”

The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association executive director Kate Davies comments: “The announcement of Simon Clarke to the role of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities minister means that the country has now had over twenty different housing ministers since the turn of the century.

“We have seen so many promises from successive governments on how they will improve housing supply, and so much under-delivery, that Mr Clarke will have his work cut out for him in days to come. It’s positive to see his promotion from minister to secretary of state for the role, hopefully suggesting that housing will be a stronger focus for the new Truss government.

“We urgently need more housing stock to help younger generations in the UK become first-time buyers and start building up equity for a stable financial future, not to mention having a home they can truly call theirs.

“We also need much more public sector housing – and greater recognition of the essential role of the private rented sector in filling many of the gaps currently left by the dearth of public sector stock. To do this, we need a coherent long-term strategy that can last longer than the span of a single government. We look forward to seeing the measures which Mr Clarke proposes.”