Matthew Pennycook is one of Labour's more substantial policy specialists and, as housing and planning minister, has been responsible for turning the party's housing promises into law. His record includes the abolition of Section 21 evictions and major changes to the planning system. The weakness is delivery: housing construction remains far below the rate required for Labour's target of 1.5 million additional homes.

Pennycook entered Parliament in 2015 after a career centred on poverty, wages and housing. He worked for the Fair Pay Network and was a senior research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation between 2012 and 2014, concentrating on welfare reform, low pay and working poverty. He also served as a Greenwich councillor from 2010 until shortly before his election to Westminster.

His constituency position is exceptionally secure. At the 2024 general election he received 23,999 votes, or 56.2%, in Greenwich and Woolwich. His majority was 18,366, while the Conservatives finished third behind the Green Party. Turnout was 58.5%.

Before Labour entered government, Pennycook held shadow posts covering Brexit, climate change and housing. Keir Starmer appointed him Minister of State for Housing and Planning on 6 July 2024. His unusually broad brief covers housing supply, planning reform, social and affordable housing, the private rented sector, leasehold, Homes England, new towns and land transparency. He remained in the position under Andy Burnham and was subsequently appointed to the Privy Council.

Pennycook represents Labour's technocratic centre-left rather than its campaigning left. His politics combine stronger rights for tenants and leaseholders with a willingness to override local resistance to development. He supports mandatory housing targets, denser building in high-demand areas and limited development on lower-quality "grey belt" land. That makes him more interventionist than recent Conservative housing ministers, but it has also placed him in conflict with councils, environmental objections and voters resistant to large developments.

His clearest completed achievement is the Renters' Rights Act 2025. The legislation received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and its main tenancy provisions came into force on 1 May 2026. It abolished Section 21 "no-fault" evictions, replaced most fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies with periodic tenancies, restricted rental bidding and strengthened tenants' ability to challenge unreasonable rent increases. Later phases provide for a landlord database, a private-rented-sector ombudsman and higher property standards.

This matters because previous governments had repeatedly promised to abolish Section 21 without completing the legislation. Pennycook helped carry the policy through Parliament and then brought its central provision into operation. However, several enforcement mechanisms were deliberately postponed, and their effectiveness will depend heavily on local councils already struggling with staffing and resources.

Planning reform is his second major area of delivery. The Planning and Infrastructure Act received Royal Assent in December 2025. It introduced measures intended to shorten planning delays, accelerate major infrastructure and discourage developers from obtaining permission without building. Pennycook also signed regulations commencing a new local-plan system in March 2026, with the government seeking to reduce a process that previously averaged around seven years to approximately two and a half.

There are early indications of movement. Applications covering 412,000 homes were submitted in the year to June 2026, reportedly the highest total for five years. Homes England recorded 42,433 starts and 40,332 completions in 2025–26, respective increases of 11% and 9%; 32,243 of those completions were affordable homes.

The national picture is less impressive. England recorded approximately 130,170 new-build starts in the year to March 2026, up 15%, but completions fell 6% to 143,110. Completions were still 24% below their 2021 peak. At anything close to that rate, Labour will not reach 1.5 million homes during a five-year Parliament. Planning permission alone cannot overcome high interest rates, weak developer demand, shortages of skilled labour, water constraints and inadequate local infrastructure.

Leasehold reform presents another unfinished test. Pennycook has promised to make commonhold the standard tenure for new flats and ultimately end the "feudal" leasehold system affecting about five million homes. Some protections have taken effect, including cheaper right-to-manage claims, but the comprehensive reform has moved more slowly than many trapped leaseholders expected.

Pennycook's record is therefore stronger on legislation than physical construction. He understands the brief, has completed reforms that eluded previous ministers and appears capable of handling complicated legislation. But the central test of a housing minister is whether more homes are built. On that measure, the trajectory has improved in starts and applications, while completed supply remains inadequate. He is a credible reforming minister, but not yet the author of the housebuilding transformation Labour promised.