Roberta Blackman-Woods (right), the MP for the City of Durham, has been named as the new Shadow Housing Minister, the Labour Party has confirmed.

Professor Blackman-Woods, a sociologist with expertise in housing, is originally from Northern Ireland and pursued a career in academia before becoming an MP in 2005.

The Durham MP has replaced Emma Reynolds (left), who was promoted to Shadow Communities Secretary in last week’s reshuffle following the result of the General Election, and becomes the fourth Labour politician to hold the post in the past five years. She will be responsible for both housing and planning, which Labour had previously divided. Her last role in Parliament was as Shadow Planning Minister.

The new Shadow Housing Minister will now have to take a long hard look at Labour’s recent housing policies, including proposals to introduce a mansion tax, cap rents, ban letting agent fees,make three year tenancies the norm and restrict tax reliefs for landlords who do not keep properties to basic standards. She will also decide which policies to keep and which were ill-thought-out and, possibly,contributed towards Labour losing the recent General Election. Only then can she begin to challenge the Conservative Party and Brandon Lewis (right), who remains as Housing Minister.

As we reported last week, Lewis, who is widely thought to have impressed during his brief tenure as Housing Minister in the run-up to the General Election, retains ministerial responsibility for planning and housing in a reshuffle that has seen various new MPs arrive at the DCLG, including Mark Francois as a Minister of State, and Greg Clark, who has been appointed Communities and Local Government Secretary, replacing Eric Pickles.

It is widely hoped within the housing sector that the role of Minister of State for Housing and Planning will be escalated to a cabinet position given its critical role in the recent Election.