Lee Rowley made building safety minister

Michael Gove returns to previous role as Secretary of State for levelling up

Lee Rowley Credit: David Woolfall CC by 3.0

Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, Lee Rowley, has been appointed as the government’s new building safety minister. 

He previously held the housing brief at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities during Liz Truss’s short-lived tenure as Prime Minister. 

Under Rishi Sunak, Rowley has been moved to the post of parliamentary under-secretary of state (local government and building safety) within the same department. He will oversee the building safety – remediation and regulation regimes, and has responsibility for Building Regulations, climate change, net zero and energy efficiency. 

Meanwhile, Michael Gove has returned to his previous role as Secretary of State for levelling up, which he held until being sacked by Boris Johnson the day before the former PM’s resignation. 

Lord Callanan keeps his responsibilities for clean heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and energy minister Graham Stuart has retained his portfolio. Nus Ghani has been named as the new construction minister, the fourth person to hold the role this year. She takes over from Jackie Doyle-Price, who left after just two months in the post.