The new housing minister is a landlord – and has already attracted criticism from some sections of the media.

Yesterday Chris Pincher MP was removed as housing minister after almost exactly two years in the job.

He’s being replaced by the hitherto low-profile Stuart Andrew who takes up the ministerial position at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Andrew has been MP for the Pudsey constituency in West Yorkshire since 2010 and until yesterday was deputy chief whip. He has also previously held parliamentary under-secretary roles in the Welsh Office and the Ministry of Defence.  

Prior to entering the Commons, Andrew led the fundraising team for Martin House Hospice.

Andrew owns a house in Leeds which brings in more than £10,000 a year in rental income according to the MPs’ register of interests.

The Mirror newspaper has discovered that in 2016 Andrew voted against an amendment to legislation to make all rented homes “fit for human habitation”.

The amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill was voted down 312-219 with ministers of the day saying the amendment would cause “unnecessary regulation and cost to landlords”, and councils “already have strong and effective powers” to police poor-quality homes.

Pincher’s departure comes just as the long awaited Renters Reform White Paper nears completion; however in recent months the other housing minister, Eddie Hughes, has been the lead on that major policy issue.

It is not known whether the long-awaited Regulation of Property Agents reform of the sales and lettings side of estate agency – already three years in the making – will now be delayed further.