Minister for industry will fill government’s co-chair seat on CLC

Sarah Jones has officially been named as construction minister.

The MP for Croydon West was appointed as a minister of state at both the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) after Labour’s landslide victory earlier this month.

Sarah Jones

Source: UK Parliament

Sarah Jones, the new construction minister

She was widely rumoured to have been lined up for the construction brief within the DBT but the department refused to confirm this for a number of weeks.

The construction brief in government is usually one of a number handled by a junior minister within the DBT and involves co-chairing the Construction Leadership Council. 

An update to her profile page on the government’s website, confirmed her responsibilities would include construction.

>> Also read: A guide to the key players shaping the Labour government’s policy

Her official title is minister for industry, which includes a range of other sectors including advanced manufacturing, chemicals and plastics and materials.

Jones has previously been a shadow minister for industry and decarbonisation, for policing and the fire service and for housing.

Before coming into politics, she worked in a number of roles including head of campaigns at housing charity Shelter and a position in the campaign to expand Gatwick Airport.

She was also formerly a senior civil servant in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and was a member of the team responsible for delivering the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sarah Jones’ full ministerial responsibilities

DBT responsibilities include:

  • advanced manufacturing
  • automotive
  • aerospace
  • defence
  • consumer goods
  • chemicals and plastics
  • construction
  • infrastructure
  • maritime and shipbuilding
  • steel
  • materials and critical minerals
  • Industrial Development Advisory Board

DESNZ responsibilities include:

  • Office For Clean Energy Jobs
  • green finance
  • green jobs and skills
  • carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS)
  • carbon leakage
  • hydrogen
  • industrial decarbonisation and emissions trading, including fuel switching, business and commercial buildings decarbonisation
  • energy sector supply chains
  • green growth sectors
  • clean energy investments
  • mineworkers’ pensions

In the later years of the Conservative government, the construction minister role was subject to much change. When Nusrat Ghani was appointed in November 2022, she was the fourth person that year to take the role. 

She herself was later replaced by Alan Mak for the last few months of Rishi Sunak’s administration.

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