Here we go again … another new housing minister on the way

It appears almost certain that there will be another new housing minister named when a new Conservative leader - and thus Prime Minister - is elected by members over the coming months.

With the weekend political TV shows dominated by speculation over which of the many potential leadership candidates might succeed, a consequence of any change will be a reshuffle of the Cabinet and junior ministerial posts.

Kit Malthouse has been in post as housing minister now for just under 11 months - a short time but significantly longer than some of his recent predecessors. James Brokenshire, secretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has been in post for just under 14 months.

Malthouse has been the 17th housing minister in only 22 years and the merry-go-round of people in that post - just as rapidly turning under recent Labour governments as under the past nine years of Conservative-led government - has caused long-standing frustration in the agency and construction industries.

The post has recently been seen as a stepping stone to other things. 

Malthouse’s predecessor as housing minister, Dominic Raab, is now a frontrunner in the race to succeed Theresa May as Tory leader; the minster before that, Alok Sharma, was moved to what was seen as a more senior role at the Department of Work and Pensions; and the one before that, Gavin Barwell, became adviser to May herself after he lost his parliamentary seat in the snap General Election of 2017.

Here’s the list of housing ministers since 1997:

- Hilary Armstrong (1997-1999);

- Nick Raynsford (1999-2001);

- Charlie Falconer (2001-2001);

- Jeff Rooker (2001-2003);

- Keith Hill (2003-2005);

- Yvette Cooper (2005-2007);

- Caroline Flint (2007-2008);

- Margaret Beckett (2008-2009);

- John Healey (2009-2010);

- Grant Shapps (2010-2012);

- Mark Prisk (2012-2013);

- Kris Hopkins (2013-2014);

- Brandon Lewis (2014-2016);

- Gavin Barwell (2016-2017);

- Alok Sharma (2017-2018);

- Dominic Raab (2018);

- Kit Malthouse (2018-2019).