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Grant V Shapps MP (born 14 September 1968, Watford) is the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Welwyn Hatfield in the United Kingdom and Minister of State for Housing and Planning. He first won the seat in the general election on 5 May 2005 and was returned to parliament in the May 2010 election with a 17,423 majority.

He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010.

Early life

Shapps was born in Watford in Hertfordshire and educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys followed by Cassio College where he completed a Business & Finance course at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University), where he received a Higher National Diploma. Shapps was born to a British Jewish family, and was a one-time BBYO youth leader.

Professional career

In 1990, aged 22, Grant Shapps founded PrintHouse Corporation, a design, print, website creation and marketing business sited in London. As with other members of the Shadow Cabinet, he stepped down as a Director before the 1 July 2009 deadline for disclosure. Shapps co-owned a company How To Corp Ltd with his wife until July 2008.

Political career

Shapps stood for Parliament during the 1997 election as the Conservative candidate for North Southwark and Bermondsey, and for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency for the 2001 election, both unsuccessfully.

Shapps was reselected to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 2002 and continued his local campaigning over the next four years, he stood again in the 2005 election and was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, defeating the Labour MP and Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes (49.6%) recording the second highest swing in the 2005 election of 8.2% from Labour to Conservative, a majority of 5,946 (13.3%). At the 2010 election he received a further 11.1% Labour to Conservative swing registering a majority of 17,423.

Shapps publicly backed David Cameron's bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, seconding Cameron's nomination papers. Upon Cameron's election as Party Leader Shapps was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Campaigning. He has been tipped as a possible future leader by Daily Mail writer Quentin Letts.

Shapps was a member of the Public Administration Select Committee between May 2005 and February 2007.

Shadow housing minister

In June 2007, Grant Shapps became Shadow Housing Minister, outside the Shadow Cabinet, but entitled to attend its meetings.

Shapps has argued in favour of a community-up approach to solving the housing crisis and warns against the Government's strategy of top-down Whitehall driven housing targets, which he believes have failed in the past. In his 2007, 2008 and 2009 Conservative Party Conference speeches on Housing, Shapps outlined a vision of localism being used to replace centrally imposed housing targets with the aim of creating more new build overall. Shapps was Shadow Housing Minister during the period of the last four Labour Government Housing Ministers.

In April 2009 Grant Shapps launched the Conservative Party's 9th Green Paper on policy called Strong Foundations. In it Shapps argues for new Local Housing Trusts designed to allow local communities to grant themselves planning permission to expand and a new Right To Move intended to encourage more mobility within the social housing sector.

Minister of State for Housing and Local Government

In May 2010 Shapps became Housing & Local Government Minister within the Communities and Local Government department and immediately repealed Home Information Pack (HIP) legislation.

Shapps chairs the Cross-Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness which includes Ministers from eight Government departments.

As Minister of State for Housing Shapps has promoted plans for Flexible Rent and, controversially, proposals for amending tenure for future social tenants.

Shapps has also promoted plans to reward councils for backing new housing through a scheme known as the New Homes Bonus.

The Housing Minister has also defended claims that changes in Housing Benefit rules would be unfair.

Reports and Research

During his time in Parliament, Grant Shapps researched and published reports on a variety of subjects that received national press coverage. Five of which have focused on the causes and effect of homelessness from rough sleeping through to so-called "sofa surfing". On Christmas Eve 2007, Shapps slept on the pavement of Victoria station in a sleeping bag, waking Christmas morning soaked from a downpour. Shapps says he wanted to draw attention to the fact that there are 130,000 homeless children in England, saying, "It served its purpose. Homelessness struggles to get on the news agenda and I wanted to try and highlight the plight of children who sleep rough every night". His work became sufficiently influential within the homelessness sector that when he launched the Homelessness Foundation with Conservative leader David Cameron in May 2008, leading lights from the sector including Chief Executives from charities like Shelter, Crisis and the Founder of the Big Issue, John Bird, all joined the Advisory Panel of the Conservative Homelessness Foundation. The Foundation's aim is to provide academic research into homelessness.

On Christmas Eve 2008 Grant Shapps launched the Conservative Blueprint for Tackling Homelessness at St Mungos Homeless Hostel in Camden.

Expenses

In the MP's expenses scandal of 2009 Grant Shapps was categorised by The Daily Telegraph as an "expenses saint". In the 2011 report Mr Shapps was shown as making expenses claims totaling between £56-77,000 for the previous financial year which was spent on his second house and a heavy cocaine addiction.

Personal life

Shapps married Belinda Goldstone in 1997 and they have three children. He had chemotherapy and recovered from cancer, his children being conceived by IVF after the therapy. Shapps' cousin is Mick Jones, of punk rock band The Clash.

References

1. "Shapps: 'Real desire to make Tory/Lib Dem coalition work'". Welwyn Hatfield Times. 13 May 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
2. "Privy Council appointments, 9 June 2010". Privy Council. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
3. ^ "Meet the MP: Grant Shapps". BBC News. 16 June 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
4. Jessica Elgot (14 May 2010). "New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry". The Jewish Chronicle.
5. ^ Porter, Andrew (29 December 2007). "How Grant Shapps slept rough for Christmas". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
6. Hetherington, Peter (20 January 2010). "Tories' housing plans to raise the roofs". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
7. Watts, Robert; Oliver, Jonathan; Warren, Georgia (21 June 2009). "Conservative MPs rush to quit second jobs". London: Times Online. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
8. "Grant Shapps, Changes to the Register of Members' Interests". They Work For You. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
9. "Southwark North and Bermondsey-the 2005 general election". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
10. Letts, Quentin (23). "He stood up to the old class warrior, almost snarling". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved 22 January 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
11. ^ "Parliamentary Candidate for Welwyn Hatfield Shadow Housing Minister". The Conservative Party. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
12. "In full:Shapps speech on housing". BBC News. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
13. ^ "Sharp launches new housing policies". The Conservative Party. 7 April 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
14. "Hips scrapped by coalition government". BBC News. 20 May 2010.
15. "Homelessness".
16. David Cameron prepared for backlash over council homes
17. New Homes Bonus
18. Housing minister rebuts opposition critics: 'We are not being unfair'
19. ^ "National investigations and reports from Grant Shapps". Grant Shapps. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
20. "Homelessness a disgrace - Cameron". BBC News. 15 May 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
21. Ryan, Rosalind (15 May 2008). "Tories launch new group to tackle homelessness". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
22. "Tories unveil homelessness strategy". Metro. 24 December 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
23. "MPs' expenses: The saints (Part ii)-Grant Shapps". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
24. Newsnight, BBC2, 14 April 2010
25. Grant Shapps, Conservative, Welywn Hatfield Echo, May 2010

External links

• Grant Shapps MP Official constituency site
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• SaveMySurgery.com by Grant Shapps
• Save Our Welwyn Hatfield Post Office by Grant Shapps
• Hospital SOS Campaign to save acute services at QE2 Hospital in Welwyn Garden City by Grant Shapps
• Quieter A1M Motorway through Welwyn Hatfield by Grant Shapps
• 48 Hour GP Website to track problems with GP appointment booking nationwide by Grant Shapps
• Save New Barnfield Campaign to prevent an incinerator at New Barnfield, Hatfield
• PrintHouse Corporation Design & Print company founded by Grant Shapps
• How To Corp Ltd co-owned by Grant Shapps and his wife
• Grant Shapps PoliticsHome profile Latest news on Grant Shapps

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