The secretary of state for the environment was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Department of the Environment (DoE). Today, its responsibilities are carried out by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The post was created by Edward Heath as a combination of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Building and Works on 15 October 1970. Thus it managed a mixed portfolio of issues: housing and planning, local government, public buildings, environmental protection and, initially, transport – James Callaghan gave transport its own department again in 1976. It has been asserted that during the Thatcher government the DoE led the drive towards centralism, and the undermining of local government.^[1] Particularly, the concept of 'inner cities policy', often involving centrally negotiated public-private partnerships and centrally appointed development corporations, which moved control of many urban areas to the centre, and away from their, often left-wing, local authorities.^[1] The department was based in Marsham Towers, three separate tower blocks built for the separate pre-merger ministries, in Westminster.^[2]

In 1997, when Labour came to power, the DoE was merged with the Department of Transport to form the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), thus, essentially, restoring the DoE to its initial 1970 portfolio. The titular mention of 'the Regions' referred to the government's pledge to create regional government. In the wake of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, the environmental protection elements of the DETR were split of and merged with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), to form the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Meanwhile, the transport, housing and planning, and local and regional government aspects went to a new Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR). A year later the DTLR also split, with transport getting its own department and the rest going to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

List of environment secretaries

Secretary of State for the Environment^[3][4]

Portrait		Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office		Party	Ministry
		The Right Honourable Peter Walker MBE MP for Worcester (1932–2010)	15 October 1970	5 November 1972	Conservative	Heath
		The Right Honourable Geoffrey Rippon QC MP for Hexham (1924–1997)	5 November 1972	4 March 1974	Conservative
		The Right Honourable Anthony Crosland MP for Great Grimsby (1918–1977)	5 March 1974	8 April 1976	Labour	Wilson (III & IV)
		The Right Honourable Peter Shore MP for Stepney and Poplar (1924–2001)	8 April 1976	4 May 1979	Labour	Callaghan
		The Right Honourable Michael Heseltine MP for Henley (born 1933)	5 May 1979	6 January 1983	Conservative	Thatcher I
		The Right Honourable Tom King MP for Bridgwater (born 1933)	6 January 1983	11 June 1983	Conservative
		The Right Honourable Patrick Jenkin MP for Wanstead and Woodford (1926–2016)	11 June 1983	2 September 1985	Conservative	Thatcher II
		The Right Honourable Kenneth Baker MP for Mole Valley (born 1934)	2 September 1985	21 May 1986	Conservative
		The Right Honourable Nicholas Ridley MP for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (1929–1993)	21 May 1986	24 July 1989	Conservative
						Thatcher III
		The Right Honourable Chris Patten MP for Bath (born 1944)	24 July 1989	28 November 1990	Conservative
		The Right Honourable Michael Heseltine MP for Henley (born 1933)	28 November 1990	11 April 1992	Conservative	Major I
		The Right Honourable Michael Howard QC MP for Folkestone and Hythe (born 1941)	11 April 1992	27 May 1993	Conservative	Major II
		The Right Honourable John Gummer MP for Suffolk Coastal (born 1939)	27 May 1993	2 May 1997	Conservative

References