This article has been updated following news that the Prime Minister is to resign as well as appoint a full replacement cabinet.
Boris Johnson has fired Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove from his cabinet, a change that will likely have the most profound impact on real estate of all the many role changes seen during 48 hours of unprecedented government turmoil.
Gove was sacked yesterday evening after he joined a number of senior Conservative ministers in urging under-fire Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.
In a fast-moving story, it has subsequently emerged that the Prime Minister intends to resign today and that he has also appointed a replacement Cabinet, including Greg Clark as the new Levelling Up Secretary.
Clark served in the Cameron-Clegg coalition as Minister of State in the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2010 to 2012, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2012 to 2013, and Minister of State for Cities and Constitution at the Cabinet Office from 2013 to 2014. Following the 2015 general election, Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Clark to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In July 2016, he was appointed as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy by new Prime Minister Theresa May and remained in that role until 24 July 2019. He had the whip removed on 3 September 2019, for voting against the government, before it was restored on 29 October. In May 2022, he was named as Boris Johnson's trade envoy to Japan.
Kit Malthouse becomes Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office after the prime minister.
In a new low for Tory Party relations, No 10 was widely quoted as briefing media that Gove had had to go because "you can't have a snake who is not with you on any of the big arguments who then gleefully tells the press the leader has to go".
The Prime Minister, at the time of publication, continues to defy a growing mutiny from his cabinet and backbenchers calling for him to stand down including dramatic resignations from chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid.
The latest period of turmoil has been brought to the boil by arguments over Johnson's appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip and how much the Prime Minister knew about allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Pincher, a former housing minister.
Gove's departure leaves just one salaried minister, Eddie Hughes, left at the department responsible for the government's flagship policy of levelling up and regeneration.
The policy is intended to transform the UK by shifting resources to struggling communities and transferring power from Whitehall to local leaders. Gove, who has a notoriously tumultuous relationship with the Prime Minister, has been pursuing an increasingly interventionist course in planning and regeneration to realise these ambitions.
Gove took up the role in October of last year and has quickly scrapped the government's plans for a "radical" standalone Planning Bill in response to Tory backbench unrest.
In May in the Queen's Speech the government confirmed a number of features that will appear in its replacement, the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
A particularly contentious element of Gove's proposals sees local authorities given powers to force compulsory rent auctions of properties that have not been occupied on UK high streets for over a year. The government has also already confirmed the Bill will see councils given greater powers to drive regeneration through compulsory purchase orders.
The proposals have so far proven deeply unpopular with many in the property industry, particularly given a perceived continued failure to reform business rates, which is the critical issue for many.
In April it emerged that Gove has been planning to replace the Section 106 system that sees developers fund specific affordable housing projects with an infrastructure levy that would be paid into a general fund for local authorities to use on their own projects.
Of more immediate concern to industry now is the confusion and lack of clarity brought by the changes over the last two days to key government roles focused on property, planning and regeneration, including the resignation of the housing minister Stuart Andrew.
Colin Brown, head of planning and development at Carter Jonas, said: "There is clearly a risk of severe inertia within those Government departments that are seeing Ministers resign and despite the PM’s spokesperson indicating confidence that all vacated posts will be filled promptly, this cannot be helping the legislative programme.
"We have now had 15 housing ministers since 2005, with a new one nearly every year. At a time when the Government needs to take firm steps to keep housing delivery on the front foot this is distinctly unhelpful.
"Michael Gove ... being sacked ... adds further confusion, although some will breathe a sigh of relief given his recent pronouncements on new housing and planning reform."