Angela Rayner has revealed that the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities that it is to  drop ‘levelling up’ from its name and concentrate on ‘basics not gimmicks’.

She told staff at the now entitled Department of Housing and Communities that basics includes delivering on change “for families facing eviction through no fault of their own, for renters living in damp, cold and mouldy homes, for people living on the streets with nowhere to call home”.

The comments by Rayner were made during an all-staff meeting (main image) at the department’s HQ in Marsham Street in London.

Taking a swipe at the Tories and their levelling up agenda and the renaming of the department by Gove in 2021, Rayner said: “A Government of public service means fixing the fundamentals, rebuilding the foundations and getting the basics right to deliver for the British people.

“No more gimmicks, no more slogans, but the hard yards of governing in the national interest. The work of my department is central to our mission-driven government.

“From fixing the foundation of an affordable home, to handing power back to communities with skin in the game and rebuilding local government - this will be the department of service.

“We will go back to basics. No more government by gimmick. No more stunts and spin. Our department should do what it says on the tin.

“That’s why, I am delighted to announce that the department’s name will return to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.”

But Rayner admitted the Tories were right one point; that the UK is too ‘unequal’ saying that on housing it would also “deliver change for young couples priced out owning their own home, for leaseholders left at the mercy of eye-watering charges, and for those trapped in buildings still wrapped in dangerous cladding”.