Minister for Building Safety and Local Growth

On 1 April 2025 ministerial responsibility for all fire functions moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The change was considered by the government as delivering on a key recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report, which advised that fire and building safety should be overseen by a single department. See also Building Safety Minister.

The Building Safety Minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Local Growth and Building Safety) was part of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), in July 2024 DLUHC was renamed back to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The updated list of ministerial responsibilities published by the cabinet office in March 2025 includes the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Local Growth and Building Safety) whom is named as Alex Norris MP. The role previously officially known as the Building Safety Minister, is referred to as the Minister for Building Safety and Local Growth.

The updated responsibilities of the Minister for Building Safety and Local Growth include:

Building safety, regulations, Building Safety Regulator and remediation
Grenfell Inquiry response
Grenfell Community, Tower and Memorial
Resilience, recovery, and emergencies
Local and regional growth, including Local Growth Plans, Community Ownership, and future of legacy funding streams
High streets and towns
Investment Zones and Freeports

The previous position of Building Safety Minister was also held by Alex Norris MP, who was appointed on 9 July 2024, his predecessor was Rushanara Ali, who resigned following attendance at the Franco-British Colloque, a conference sponsored by Saint-Gobain, the majority owner of Celotex which was criticised by the Grenfell Inquiry.

In comparision the responsibilities of the previously named Building Safety Minister included:

Building safety programme
Grenfell recovery and rehousing
Grenfell public inquiry
Hong Kong BN(O) Welcome Programme
Tackling leasehold and freehold abuses
Local resilience and emergencies (including winter preparedness (Transition, Covid, HGVs))
Planning casework
Lords Minister for the department’s work

Norris is MP for Nottingham North and Kimberley and was named minister for democracy and local growth after the 2024 election. Find out more at: https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--114