Experienced Beckett urged to help turn around beleaguered uk property industry

The new Planning and Housing minister Margaret Beckett will need all her considerable political experience to take the UK's desperate property market forward, it is suggested.

The news of her appointment, replacing the younger and less experienced Caroline Flint, has been broadly welcomed across the property industry.

But leading players are warning that she needs to work with the industry rather than against it as Britain faces a severe shortage of housing and developers cannot meet government targets.

Stewart Baseley of the Home Builders Federation called on the new housing minister to find a way forward from the current crisis.

'These are critical times for house builders and Government needs to be working closely with the industry if we are to find a way of delivering the new private and social homes this country needs,' he declared.

'In the current economic climate we need to see Government action to assist the market and facilitate a way forward that safeguards housing delivery. Beckett inherits a challenging brief and one that needs a decisive Minister who will take the difficult decisions and address the issues we currently face,' he added.

'Margaret Beckett's experience will be vital in helping reshape the fortunes of the housing market. The British Property Federation looks forward to working with her at this most crucial of times and to discussing how the professional rented sector can make a serious contribution to dealing with the housing needs of the current generation,' said Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation.

'Margaret Beckett has vast experience in the Cabinet and taken a keen interest in delivering genuine sustainable development through her time as Secretary of State for DERFA and the Foreign Office. The Town and Country Planning Association warmly welcome her appointment,' said chief executive Gideon Amos.

Beckett is one of the most experienced politicians in Government. She was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994 and was briefly its leader in 1994 following the premature death of John Smith. In Tony Blair's government, she held a series of Cabinet offices, including secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs and foreign secretary.