Eric Pickles MP is appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
Born in 1952, Eric Pickles has been Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar since April 1992.
He joined the Shadow Cabinet in July 2007 as Communities and Local Government Secretary having served from August 2005 to July 2007 as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.
Eric Pickles was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party in January 2009. Other posts he has held include Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government & the Regions; Shadow Minister for Transport and Shadow Minister for London; member of the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, with special responsibility for local government affairs and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tim Sainsbury MP, Minister for Industry.
He has previously worked as a Consultant in Employment Practice and Local Government Editor for Conservative Newsline.
The new Housing Minister is Grant Shapps, the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield.
He has been the Shadow Housing Minister since 2007 and is widely regarded to have an understanding of the key issues facing the sector.
Grant Shapps will work under new Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in the department for Communities and Local Government.
There has been some disappointment in the housing sectors that the Housing Minister will not be attending Cabinet - as was the case for predecessor John Healey, who was a regular attendee at Cabinet meetings under the Labour administration.
Grant Shapps' appointment has been welcomed by leading figures across housing, including David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, who said:
"We look forward to working closely with Mr Shapps and his colleagues in the new coalition government on ensuring that the nation gets the affordable housing it so desperately needs.
"Mr Shapps has demonstrated an expert knowledge of the challenges faced by our sector and understands the need to incentivise local communities to accept the building of new homes in their area.
"With record waiting lists for social homes, Dickensian levels of overcrowding in many of our cities, and a dramatic slump in house-building numbers, it's clear that the need for more affordable housing has never been greater."
The new coalition government has published its headline policies for housing and local government.
Central to its policies is a fundamental shift of power from Westminster to people. The Government's declared aim is to promote decentralisation and democratic engagement, and end the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals.
Whilst not all directle affecting 'housing', the following is the full list of agreed priorities for the Communities and Local Government department, overseen by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps:
In an interview with the online news journal 24dash.com - his first since being appointed to the newly amalgamated role of Minister for Housing and Local Government - Grant Shapps talks about some of his priorities for the coming months.
On reform of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the Minister confirmed that it is still something he is keen to look at. He said:
"It simply doesn't make sense to have a system that doesn't work for anyone, ends up recycling money rather than creating new investment and actually fails to build more homes at the end of it.
"Labour got round to looking at it in their final days, but we need to assess what's been put in place. Effectively, we're going to review the review and draw our own conclusions."
Mr Shapps was also questioned on his commitment to abolishing the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) and said:
"In my view the TSA was always a quango too far but we are absolutely committed to putting tenant protection and satisfaction at the heart of everything we do.
"I feel there are better, more cost-effective ways to regulate the social housing sector and I do think the money invested in the TSA could be better spent elsewhere.
"As part of the Coalition Deal there is a commitment to reducing the number of government quangos and I think it's fair to say the TSA will probably be one of those that we have to look at very closely."