The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has welcomed the appointment of Alok Sharma as the new Housing and Planning Minister.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said the organisation hopes Mr Sharma can continue the work left behind by former Housing Minister Gavin Barwell, who worked to push through a wide range of reforms including those designed to tackle barriers to growth faced by smaller builders.

In addition, Mr Berry added the new Minister's focus must be ensuring the recommendations in the 2017 Housing White Paper are "delivered in full".

"We welcome the appointment of Alok Sharma as the new Minister of State for Housing and Planning," he said.

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"He assumes the role at a critical juncture for the delivery of the Government's ambitious target to build 1.5 million homes between 2015 and 2022. Vital to this will be ensuring that the recommendations within the 2017 Housing White Paper, that aim to diversify the supply of new homes and revitalise the SME house building sector, are delivered in full.

"The previous Housing Minister Gavin Barwell deserves credit for his work in pushing forward a wide range of reforms, including those designed to tackle some of the barriers to growth faced by smaller scale builders, and we hope that Sharma can build on this legacy."

Mr Berry added that a proposal in the Conservative Party's manifesto to open the possibility of council's taking a more active role in house building "suggests that the Government was still open to new and radical approaches to solving the housing crisis".

"It would be a shame if such radicalism was now dropped in light of a hung Parliament," he continued.

"We look forward to working closely with the new Minister, whose experience in the Treasury should hold him in excellent stead for the challenges ahead."

(LM)