Westminster Watch: What the Burnham government might mean for the built environment

With Prime Minister Andy Burnham's full ministerial team now confirmed, UKGBC has been reviewing what the new government means for our members and for the built environment's contribution to climate mitigation, adaptation and nature recovery. The headline changes are significant but look beneath them and there is considerably more continuity than might first appear.

A Prime Minister who knows our world

Andy Burnham’s political trajectory on the built environment is unlikely to differ hugely from his predecessor’s. What is different is his familiarity with our sector. His years championing locally-led, place-based regeneration as Mayor of Greater Manchester align closely with the Regenerative Places approach UKGBC is working to scale nationally, and give us a Prime Minister who arrives already fluent in the arguments our members make every day about the role good places play in growth, health and resilience.

Continuity at DESNZ

Miatta Fahnbulleh takes over as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, replacing Ed Miliband. This is a strong continuity appointment for us. Fahnbulleh has held junior DESNZ roles before and knows the department’s priorities well, and she is already known to UKGBC directly, having spoken at our Climate Resilience Roadmap launch last year. That gives us both a Secretary of State whose commitment to net zero is well established and an existing relationship to build on, one that has the ear of the Prime Minister as a core member of his political team.

The rest of the DESNZ team reflects the same pattern. Martin McCluskey remains in place on the Energy Consumers brief, and Katie White has been promoted to Minister of State while retaining responsibility for climate policy. Between them, this is about as much stability as we could have asked for in the department most central to our decarbonisation agenda.

MHCLG: Familiar faces, familiar priorities

At the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner returns as Secretary of State, a role she held until last September. Her return is likely to bring a strong focus on housebuilding and devolution, both central to our placed-based agenda. Matthew Pennycook remains in post on housing and planning, and will now also attend Cabinet, strengthening the built environment’s voice at the top table. Florence Eshalomi joins as Minister of State; as former chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, she already has a strong grasp of the issues we focus on.

Defra: One to watch

Dame Angela Eagle’s appointment as Secretary of State at Defra is the one area where we are less able to predict the direction of travel. Her ministerial background to date has been in farming and food, rather than climate resilience or nature recovery specifically, so we will be watching closely to see how much priority the department gives to these agendas under her leadership. Emma Hardy has been promoted to Minister of State and retains the water and flooding brief, which offers some reassurance of continuity on that front.

What this means for our work

Taken together, this is a government with a genuinely useful level of institutional memory on the issues that matter most to our network”

Taken together, this is a government with a genuinely useful level of institutional memory on the issues that matter most to our network, from net zero delivery to housing and planning reform. That gives UKGBC a strong foundation to build on rather than a relationship to start from scratch.

We are writing this week to the Prime Minister and to the Secretaries of State and Ministers whose briefs cover our work, setting out our priorities for the built environment’s contribution to climate mitigation, adaptation and nature recovery. Our focus in the coming weeks will be on getting our message in front of the new ministerial team quickly, while the government’s priorities are still being set, and in particular on pressing the case for place-based regeneration directly with the Prime Minister and with Angela Rayner.

Keep up to date on our engagement with this new Government through our member exclusive monthly policy newsletter, or email policy@ukgbc.org with questions.

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