Seven things you should know about new housing secretary Simon Clarke

Simon Clarke has joined the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities from the Treasury, where he served as chief secretary for the past year. He was  effectively the No 2 to two to chancellors, Rishi Sunak and Nadim Zahawi.

The Brexiteer and former solicitor grew up near Middlesbrough in the North-east, and in 2017 was elected as the first Conservative MP for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency.

At the age of 37, he is the second-youngest cabinet minister in the government (new environment secretary Ranil Jayawardena is 36) but, beyond this, what do we know about the new housing secretary? 

1. He supported contentious reforms to the planning system

The Conservative Party’s shock by-election defeat to the Liberal Democrats in Chesham and Amersham in June 2021 was blamed by most experts on the proposed planning reforms of the then housing secretary Robert Jenrick. The new system would have seen councils given set housing targets and told to zone areas which would then grant automatic planning permission to developers.

The proposals proved unpopular with many in rural areas and were credited with being a major factor when Jenrick was replaced by Michael Gove last September. However, Clarke was an enthusiastic supporter of the reforms, which have since been watered down.

In July 2021, he tweeted to urge parliament to back the reforms saying: “England’s housing crisis is a problem of land supply, and until we become serious about tackling this, too many people will continue to be excluded.”

He said at the time: “Sensible planning reform, allowing communities to protect areas they cherish while designating others for good-quality development, with strict design codes, can break the deadlock and ensure we don’t continue to prioritise the interests of those who have homes over those who don’t.”

Clarke, therefore, has fans within the housing industry. Paul Smith, managing director of the Strategic Land Group, said: “Clarke has made some sensible comments about the planning system in the past, so let’s hope he avoids the snake and makes a rapid start, pressing ahead with the crucial changes already contained in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill. The last thing we need is more uncertainty.”

2. He wrote a paper calling for the release of green belt land for 1.5 million new homes

Building on the green belt is almost always politically contentious but Clarke has been in favour, repeatedly pointing out that much of it is not very green nor environmentally protected.

In 2018 he wrote a paper calling for green belt land within a half-mile radius of railway stations to be freed up for development where no special environmental protection exists. He said: “Across England, this small release of land would create enough land supply for at least 1.5 million new homes – and potentially many more, were the radius to be widened even slightly – while leaving 98% of all existing green belt land entirely untouched.”

He added: “We should unleash a home ownership revolution across England by developing new criteria to require local planning authorities to release green belt land that is not worthy of the name.”

He also suggested that a green land guarantee could stipulate in law that land designated under environmental categories should not drop below 35% of land in England.

Clarke’s green belt land release idea was taken up by Liz Truss when she was considering joining the Conservative leadership race in 2019. She argued that the government should build a million homes near London on green belt land close to railway stations. She eventually decided not to stand.

3. He led a (successful) cross-party campaign for a binding net zero target

As a backbencher in 2019, Clarke led a cross-party parliamentary campaign for the government to set a legally binding net zero target. He coordinated a letter signed by 192 MPs calling for the net zero pledge to be enshrined in law and achieved his goal in June 2019.

Clarke has repeatedly urged his party to commit to net zero and go further. In June, writing in The Times, he said “we mustn’t ignore the costs of not acting” on climate change and cited figures showing climate impacts could knock 6% or 7% off the UK’s GDP by the end of the century.

He said: “I hope my colleagues can join me in recommitting to net zero and celebrating our party’s leadership. This is an opportunity to seize, not a burden to manage.”

The dynamic between Clarke and his support for net zero and new business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and his desire for more fossil fuel use could be one to watch. Notably Clarke used to work for Graham Stuart, who has been appointed as climate change minister under Rees-Mogg.

4. He does not like central housing targets

While he backs national net zero targets to drive activity, he does not now seem to be in favour of applying the same logic to housebuilding.

Clarke voiced his opposition to “top-down” housing targets, echoing the views of Truss. He tweeted last month: “Building more good homes is a top priority, creating rational incentives and reassurances for communities to embrace them is vital. The cult of top-down targets, however, has become a toxic distraction and Liz Truss is right to say she would scrap them.”

This suggests that Clarke is in favour of the Truss government dropping the Conservative manifesto pledge to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

5. He encouraged Gove to threaten housebuilders with legal sanctions over cladding costs

Michael Gove’s attempts to secure funding from housebuilders to remediate tower blocks over 11m in height have dominated many of the housing news headlines this year. Threats by then housing secretary Gove to stop housebuilders trading if they did not contribute were branded “draconian” in February.

A leaked letter earlier this year shows that it was Clarke, as chief secretary to the Treasury, who effectively gave Gove the green light to make his threats. Clarke wrote: “You may use a high-level threat of tax or legal solutions in discussions with developers as a means to obtaining voluntary contributions from them”.

6. He cites his home town in his support for regeneration and levelling up

Clarke often speaks about the need to regenerate areas of the country and appears to be a big supporter of the government’s levelling up agenda. He often draws on his own experience growing up in Marton, near Middlesbrough.

In 2020, when he was minister for regional growth and local government, Clarke said: “I want to place particular focus on our towns and our coastal communities, including many places that have felt – with good reason – that they have failed to share the benefits of the growth experienced in other parts of the UK. I come from one of them.

“This government has made a solemn pledge to these communities, and we will not let them down.”

7. He was accused of leaning on the Bank of England to prevent interest rate rises

Since Gordon Brown’s historic decision to grant the Bank of England independence to set interest rates in 1997, it has been the convention that the Treasury does not seek to influence the bank’s decisions.

However, Clarke ran into a spot of bother on live television in July when former Labour Treasury minister Ed Balls accused him of “trying to lean a bit on the Bank of England” to keep interest rates low due to concerns over costs.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen Treasury ministers in the last 20 years trying to influence the Bank of England in this way… were you warning them not to raise interest rates?”

Clarke backed down quickly saying that he would “absolutely” leave the issue of when to increase interest rates to the bank. He said: “I think there’s absolutely no question that we, as a government, need to play our role in conjunction with the bank in maintaining wider pay and spending discipline, but they do have a vitally important role to play and interest rates are a critical lever in that fight.”