The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, and Cabinet minister, responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

The current minister is Angela Rayner, who was appointed to the role under Sir Keir Starmer on 5 July 2024.

[5] The Department of Communities and Local Government was created in 2006 by then British prime minister Tony Blair to replace John Prescott's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which had taken on the local government and regions portfolios from the defunct Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in 2002.

[citation needed] Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson renamed the position Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and gave the secretary and the department responsibility for carrying out the promise in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto of "levelling up".

[7] Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer renamed the department as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 8 July 2024, retiring the levelling up monicker.