7
Oct
New housing minister speaks of priorities
Former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has spoken of her
priorities as she takes on the role of housing minister.
Ms Beckett, who briefly led the Labour Party following the death of
John Smith in 1994, replaced Caroline Flint as the ministerial team
at the Department for Communities and Local Government underwent a
change of personnel in Gordon Brown's reshuffle at the end of last
week.
In her first statement in the post, Ms Beckett described her main
aims as "to help overcome the challenges in the housing market
caused by the current global turbulence, whilst maintaining our
focus on delivering the affordable homes needed to meet long-term
demand".
Ms Beckett added that she was looking to support struggling
mortgage payers, aspiring first-time buyers and help the
homebuilding industry to recover.
Meanwhile, government intervention will be needed to enable the
residential construction sector to come through the current
economic situation, the executive chair of the Home Builders
Federation Stewart Baseley said on Friday.
