Baroness Andrews OBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

December 29, 2006

by News on the Block Editorial Team

Baroness Andrews was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the newly created Communities and Local Government in May 2006. Her role reflects and expands upon her previous position at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Her responsibilities include communities and local government business in the Lords; planning policy and casework; neighbourhood renewal; liveability; social exclusion and regional spatial strategies for the West Midlands, South West, North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humber.

Tell us a little about your background and how you came to your role at the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

Ten years later, I became a Government Whip on Health and Education, which meant I had a lot to do with taking through legislation, involving local authorities and community development. So, when I was offered the post in Communities and Local Government (ODPM as it then was) in 2005, I was delighted because it meant I could become involved in developing policies for housing and community regeneration (and social exclusion) that are very dear to me. It is a great privilege to be able to contribute to these sorts of policies that affect so many people in very important ways.

What do you see as the greatest challenges affecting you in this role?

The greatest challenge for me, therefore, given that there are only 24 hours in the day is to make sure about priorities; to ensure the pressures to sort out immediate problems and issues don’t overwhelm the need for us to think in the long term about what our country should look like and be like in 10, 20 or even 100 year’s time. That means thinking hard about the challenges we face: an ageing society; protecting our heritage with the need to provide housing and services for the next generation; and how best we can involve the whole of our community in making these decisions.

What do you see as your greatest achievement so far?

Describe DCLG’s services and benefits.

What do you think are the greatest problems facing the leasehold sector?

We have improved the rights available to leaseholders through the provisions in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, including making it easier for leaseholders to buy the freehold or extend their lease, or to simply have control over the management of their property. However, it is important to recognise that, as a community, co-operation and reasonableness from all those involved, landlords, leaseholders and agents alike, is an integral part of ensuring that leaseholders’ homes are adequately maintained and are places in which they want to live.

How do you believe the Olympics will benefit the leasehold sector?

Do you think that there is a greater role for mediation in the resolution of leasehold disputes?

The Government intends to make all private sector managers put the service charge monies for each block into separate bank accounts. Do you think this creates an unnecessary burden for managing agents and would it not be better to use the legal profession model and just have one client account?
Given the large amounts of money that can sometimes be involved, transparency for service charge payers where their service charges are concerned is an important issue. It is important that service charge payers are able to know and establish that their money is being both held and used properly.

Whilst existing legislation provides for all service charges to be held in one or more accounts, in trust, this does not ensure that there is transparency in respect of monies held on behalf of particular groups of service charge payers. Our work continues on this requirement and at this stage we are not able to say what the final outcome will be.

Please comment on the cross-government strategy for older persons’ housing.

Tell us a little about your non-professional interests.

Biography

Baroness Andrews OBE

Elizabeth) Kay Andrews, OBE Baroness Andrews of Southover (2000), was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in May 2006. Her new role reflects and expands upon her previous position at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, where she was appointed following the General Election of May 2005.
Before being appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary, Baroness Andrews was a Government Whip and Spokesperson in the House of Lords for Health, Work and Pensions, and Education and Skills (2003-2005).
Before being raised to the peerage, Baroness Andrews was a Fellow of the Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex University 1968 – 70; Parliamentary Clerk in the House of Commons 1970 – 85; and Policy Adviser to Neil Kinnock as Leader of the Opposition
1985 – 92. From 1992 – 2002, Baroness Andrews was the Founder and Director of Education Extra, the national charity for out of school learning and activities. She received the OBE in 1998 for her work in education.
She was educated at Lewis School for Girls, Hengoed, Ystrad Mynach and went on to study International Politics at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. At Sussex she took an MA in Political Sociology and subsequently a DPhil in History and Social Studies of Science. She has written books and articles on the history and organisation of science and technology policy, on poverty and social policy, and on education.

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