Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Like the business department, MHCLG has struggled to keep its own name. Since 2006 it has been the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, and now the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government again. Four names in 18 years. Nine Secretaries of State have served since 2010: Eric Pickles, Greg Clark, Sajid Javid, James Brokenshire (resigned for lung cancer treatment), Robert Jenrick (resigned over asylum seeker housing), Michael Gove (sacked), Simon Clarke (49 days under Truss), Angela Rayner and Steve Reed. In April 2025, all national fire functions were transferred from the Home Office to MHCLG, implementing a recommendation from the Grenfell Phase 2 Inquiry. The department's remit keeps expanding. Its ability to deliver on the responsibilities it already had has not kept pace.

Housing is the department's greatest failure, and the numbers make it unanswerable.

England completed 190,600 new build homes in the year to March 2025, a four percent fall and an eight year low. The net increase in dwellings was 208,600, the lowest since 2015/16. The government's target is 1.5 million homes over this Parliament, an average of 300,000 per year. At the current rate, delivery will struggle to reach one million. Savills forecasts completions dropping further to around 160,000 in 2025/26, their lowest since 2014/15. Planning permissions fell seven percent in the year to June 2025, the fourth consecutive annual decline. Starts dropped by around half in the year to June 2024 before beginning to rebound. The pipeline is shrinking, not growing.

The government has responded with the most aggressive planning reform in a generation. Mandatory housing targets of 370,000 homes per year were imposed on councils in December 2024. "Grey belt" land was defined in national planning policy for the first time. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill received Royal Assent. £100 million was committed for councils' planning officers alongside 300 additional planners. A £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme was announced over 10 years from 2026/27 to 2035/36, aiming to deliver around 300,000 social and affordable homes. These are serious measures. They also arrive after decades in which every government promised to fix housing and none built at the scale required. Some 97 percent of local planning authorities report planning skills gaps, with around half reporting gaps specifically in Section 106, CIL and viability assessments. The ambition is clear. The capacity to deliver it is not.

Local government presents an equally serious challenge. Over the past 15 years, councils have faced sustained financial pressure. Several have effectively declared bankruptcy by issuing Section 114 notices: Northamptonshire, Croydon, Slough, Thurrock, Woking, Birmingham and others. Others have cut services significantly to balance their books. Seven Mayoral Strategic Authorities will receive at least £13 billion through Integrated Settlements. But outside those combined authorities, many councils face a funding model that no longer matches the demand placed upon them. The public sees the consequences. Roads deteriorate. Libraries close. Social care tightens. Communities pay more council tax while receiving less.

The Grenfell Tower tragedy remains the department's most serious accountability failure. Almost eight years after the fire that killed 72 people, work has not started on over half of the 5,000 buildings in MHCLG's remediation portfolio. As many as 7,000 additional unsafe buildings over 11 metres are still to be identified. MHCLG's central estimate of the total remediation cost is £16.6 billion, with a range of £12.6 billion to £22.4 billion across 9,000 to 12,000 buildings. Taxpayer contributions are capped at £5.1 billion. Developers will fund the remainder through the ongoing Developer Remediation Programme and a Building Safety Levy on new developments from autumn 2025. The slow pace of resolution has left thousands of residents living in uncertainty years after a disaster that should have produced the fastest possible response.

The ministry can point to genuine action. The planning reforms are the most significant in decades. The £39 billion affordable homes commitment is real money. The fire functions transfer consolidates accountability. The grey belt definition and mandatory targets show political willingness to face opposition. These are not cosmetic gestures.

What concerns the public is the gap between promises and homes. England needs 300,000 completions a year. It is delivering 190,600 and falling. The 1.5 million target requires the sector to expand faster than Savills believes is physically possible. Planning skills gaps affect 97 percent of local authorities. Grenfell remediation is not half done after eight years. Councils are issuing Section 114 notices. The department has been renamed four times, led by nine Secretaries of State and asked to solve problems that have defeated every government since the 1990s. A country that cannot house its own population is a country failing at the most basic function of domestic government. On that measure, MHCLG has the most important brief in Whitehall and the least convincing record of delivery.