Lucy Frazer leaves housing minister role after three months

News08 Feb 2023Michael Lloyd

Lucy Frazer has left her role as housing minister after just over three months in charge, to lead the new Department for Culture, Media and Sport, while Grant Shapps has been named head of a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Lucy Frazer (picture: Richard Townshend)

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Lucy Frazer has left her role as housing minister after three months #UKhousing #SocialHousingFinance

On 26 October 2022, Ms Frazer became the 14th housing minister in 12-and-a-half years under the current Conservative administration.

She took over from Lee Rowley, who had spent around six weeks in the job after being appointed by Liz Truss, the prime minister at the time.

Now Ms Frazer will head the refocused Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The government said this will “recognise the importance of these industries to our economy and build on the UK’s position as a global leader in the creative arts”.

The government said the formation of the department “recognises the significant impact rising prices have had on households across the country as a result of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, and the need to secure more energy from domestic nuclear and renewable sources as we seize the opportunities of net zero”.

Mr Shapps was previously secretary of state for the Home Department from 19 October 2022 to 25 October 2022 and secretary of state for transport between 24 July 2019 and 6 September 2022.

Prior to this, he was minister of state at the Department for International Development from May 2015 until November 2015.

Mr Shapps said on Twitter: “[I’m] delighted to become the first Secretary of State for the new Department for Energy Security & Net Zero. My focus will be securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and thereby helping to halve inflation.”

This month, Mr Shapps wrote to Ofgem, telling the energy regulator to protect customers from prepayment meters being installed forcibly.

The previous prime minister, Ms Truss, introduced the Energy Price Guarantee scheme on 1 October last year to cap average energy bills at £2,500 per year for a typical household.

After announcing the scheme will end in April 2023, to the concern of the social housing sector, chancellor Jeremy Hunt maintained the support in his Autumn Statement, but at a lower level. From April 2023 until the end of March 2024, the typical household bill will be capped at £3,000 per year.

The government said it will keep the scheme under review and will also develop a new approach to consumer protection in energy markets, which will apply from April 2024 onwards.

In January, housing associations and sector trade bodies called for the government to introduce a “social tariff” for energy to help vulnerable households when subsidised support ends after April 2024.

Also in the Autumn Statement, Mr Hunt unveiled plans for a £6bn new energy-efficiency taskforce to help the UK reduce the energy usage of buildings and industry in the long term.

Last month, a report from the Environmental Audit Committee called on the government to bring forward its promised £6bn future energy-efficiency funding to avoid “three winters of delay”.

It also urged the government to make the upgrading of homes to energy performance certificate (EPC) band C or above a “national priority”.

A senior civil servant previously praised the social housing sector for coming “a long way” in its advance towards net zero, with its progress on energy-efficient improvements to its existing stock.

Speaking at Homes UK and Unlock Net Zero Live 2022, Ffiona Hesketh, deputy director at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said the sector had progressed from 18 per cent of properties being classed as EPC band C in 2008 to about 66 per cent now.