| The Right Honourable Grant Shapps MP |
|
|---|---|
| Minister of State for Housing and Local Government | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 13 May 2010 |
|
| Prime Minister | David Cameron |
| Preceded by | John Healey (Housing) Rosie Winterton (Local Government) |
| Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Melanie Johnson |
| Majority | 17,423 (35.6%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 September 1968 Watford, Hertfordshire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Belinda Shapps |
| Alma mater | Manchester Polytechnic |
Grant V Shapps MP (born 14 September 1968, Watford) is the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield in the United Kingdom and Minister of State for Housing and Planning. He first won the seat in the general election on 5 May 2005 and was returned to parliament in the May 2010 election with a 17,423 majority.[1]
He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010.[2]
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Shapps was born in Watford in Hertfordshire and educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys followed by Cassio College where he completed a Business & Finance course at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University), where he received a Higher National Diploma.[3] Shapps was born to a British Jewish family, and was a one-time BBYO youth leader.[4]
In 1990, aged 22,[5] Grant Shapps founded PrintHouse Corporation, a design, print, website creation and marketing business sited in London.[3][6] As with other members of the Shadow Cabinet he stepped down as a Director.[7]
Shapps stood for Parliament during the 1997 election as the Conservative candidate for North Southwark and Bermondsey,[8] and for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency for the 2001 election, both unsuccessfully.[5]
Shapps was reselected to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 2002 and continued his local campaigning over the next four years, he stood again in the 2005 election and was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, defeating the Labour MP and Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes (49.6%) recording the second highest swing in the 2005 election of 8.2% from Labour to Conservative, a majority of 5,946 (13.3%). At the 2010 election he received a further 11.1% Labour to Conservative swing registering a majority of 17,423.
Shapps publicly backed David Cameron's bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, seconding Cameron's nomination papers. Upon Cameron's election as Party Leader Shapps was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Campaigning.[5] He has been tipped as a possible future leader by Daily Mail writer Quentin Letts.[9]
Shapps was a member of the Public Administration Select Committee between May 2005 and February 2007.
In June 2007, Grant Shapps became Shadow Housing Minister,[10] outside the Shadow Cabinet, but entitled to attend its meetings. Shapps was Shadow Housing Minister during the period of the last four Labour Government Housing Ministers.
Shapps argued in favour of a community-up approach to solving the housing crisis and warned against the then Government's strategy of top-down Whitehall driven housing targets, which he believed had failed in the past.[5] In his 2007, 2008 and 2009 Conservative Party Conference speeches on Housing, Shapps outlined a vision of localism being used to replace centrally imposed housing targets with the aim of creating more new build overall.[11]
In April 2009 Grant Shapps launched the Conservative Party's 9th Green Paper on policy called Strong Foundations.[12] In it Shapps argued for new Local Housing Trusts designed to allow local communities to grant themselves planning permission to expand and a new Right To Move intended to encourage more mobility within the social housing sector.[12]
In May 2010 Shapps became Housing & Local Government Minister within the Communities and Local Government department and immediately repealed Home Information Pack (HIP) legislation.[13]
Shapps chairs the Cross-Ministerial Working Group [14] on Homelessness which includes Ministers from eight Government departments.
As Minister of State for Housing Shapps has promoted plans for Flexible Rent and, controversially, proposals for amending tenure for future social tenants. [15]
Shapps has also promoted plans to reward councils for backing new housing through a scheme known as the New Homes Bonus. [16]
The Housing Minister has also defended claims that changes in Housing Benefit rules would be unfair. [17]
He has also championed Tenant Panels[18] stating:
Residents, including social housing tenants, want to make big positive differences to their communities – and I want to put the powers in their hands to be able to do so. For too long, when there’s a problem in their area, they have been told to sit tight and wait until action is taken on their behalf. The new powers and skills that tenant panels will bring will instead allow them to take control of their area; putting them at the heart of proposing solutions, and no longer simply putting up with the problems.—Grant Shapps, Inside Housing
At the 2011 Party conference Shapps backed the expansion of Right To Buy with the income being spent on replacing the sold housing with new Affordable Housing on a one for one basis. [19]
During his time in Parliament, Grant Shapps researched and published reports on a variety of subjects that received national press coverage, five of which focused on the causes and effects of homelessness, from rough sleeping through to so-called "sofa surfing".[20] On Christmas Eve 2007, Shapps slept on the pavement of Victoria station in a sleeping bag, waking on Christmas morning soaked from a downpour.[5] Shapps says he wanted to draw attention to the fact that there are 130,000 homeless children in England, saying: "...it served its purpose. Homelessness struggles to get on the news agenda and I wanted to try and highlight the plight of children who sleep rough every night".[5] His work became sufficiently influential within the homelessness sector that when he launched the Homelessness Foundation with Conservative leader David Cameron in May 2008, leading lights from the sector, including Chief Executives from charities like Shelter, Crisis and the Founder of the Big Issue, John Bird, all joined the Advisory Panel of the Conservative Homelessness Foundation.[21] The Foundation's aim is to provide academic research into homelessness.[22]
On Christmas Eve 2008 Grant Shapps launched[23] the Conservative Blueprint for Tackling Homelessness[20] at St Mungos Homeless Hostel in Camden.
In the MP's expenses scandal of 2009 Grant Shapps was categorised by The Daily Telegraph as an "expenses saint".[24]
Shapps married Belinda Goldstone in 1997 and they have three children.[10] In 1989 whilst on holiday, age 20, Shapps was a passenger in a car that crashed in Kansas, USA, leaving him in a coma for a week. [25] He had chemotherapy and recovered from cancer, his children being conceived by IVF after the therapy.[5] Shapps' cousin is Mick Jones, of punk rock band The Clash.[26][27]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Melanie Johnson |
Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield 2005–present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Healey |
Minister of State for Housing and Planning 2010–present |
Incumbent |