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October – November 2025 : Making a difference READ ONLINE

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Minister muddle

October 01 2025

The government’s homeless minister resigned in disgrace in August this year. An update covering what happened, what the job involves and what comes next, by Shakir Razak

For those familiar with Britain's housing crisis, Rushanara Ali's brief tenure as homelessness minister was entirely predictable. The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow lasted barely a month before resigning in August 2025 after reports emerged that she had evicted tenants from her own property using a Section 21 notice, saying she would sell the property, then re-listing it for £700 more per month. The minister responsible for preventing homelessness was creating it through her landlord practices.
The subsequent criticism of her by housing charities, like Crisis, pointing out the hypocrisy of the homelessness minister causing homelessness had an inevitability to it, and was in line with why her popularity with her constituents matches the Prime Minister’s. 


The role and its challenges

The homelessness minister should be one of the most impactful ministers in a functional, civilised government, but with a high turnover of careerist politicians, the only one who seems to have stood out since it was created is Heather Wheeler. Wheeler was in place during the Covid lockdowns and was able to show homelessness can be solved on a politician’s whim if desired.

The official title: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, sits within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, working under the Deputy Prime Minister (whoever that may be by the time this reaches you).

Its role is to discharge the duties laid out in the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017; and pursue the government’s own rough sleeping strategy which valiantly (foolhardily?) aims to stop the problem in 18 months. The minister must connect the minuscule budget for this purpose, about £260m, to the hundreds of local authorities and coordinate amongst them to stop homelessness. How does that look like it’s going from where you are? 
Almost anyone not in a chauffeur-driven car has likely seen with their own eyes the struggles people are facing and so more likely becoming homeless. Even official statistics show a greater than 10% rise in it for groups like the young, and a similar increase in homelessness across the country in the last decade.

In fairness, even by those with the best of intentions it’s a challenging job – have you tried coordinating with an army of officials and third-sector people in a political economy dominated by frameworks that serve landlords more than the people living in their houses? Time is wasted collecting prior reports, data and meetings to justify a snail’s pace of potential progress. Meanwhile, what we already know from Norway’s Housing First and what we did from the very first lockdown, is that letting fellow humans be homeless (often the ill, disabled, vulnerable, survivors of violence and military veterans) is a choice of the political class. They could choose to reduce the harm in days. 
At the same time, let’s not forget, these are the same class of politicians who are pleading with BlackRock and other foreign tax-engineering investors to change the model of housing, already the worst in the so-called developed world, by adding the rocket-fuel of build-to-let;  already proven to raise everyone’s rent in the areas where they operate.


The path forward

Having a homelessness minister is absolutely a good thing for the basic need that housing is, and the cross-departmental cost of it when people are made homeless. It brings some visibility and a focal point for various stakeholders to engage and it has shown the power of a single person coordinating widely. However, it’s a job that, if sincere intent is genuinely there by the wider political class, needs to be backed up in platform and resources to match the task in hand in order to bring the necessary change. 
Rising rents, housing shortages and economic pressures create homelessness faster than policy interventions can prevent it. The lack of a consistent minister in the role has meant a lack of continuity, which leads to a gap in experience, policy development and relationships. 
Effective homelessness policy requires sustained engagement over years, not months.

The next occupant of the role will inherit substantial challenges: rising rough sleeping numbers, stretched local authority resources and public scepticism about government effectiveness on housing. The role needs genuine commitment – not careerist politicians treating it as a stepping stone while profiting from the very crisis they're meant to solve.

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October – November 2025 : Making a difference

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