WORKERS in Housing Secretary Angela Rayner’s department are to stage a series of strikes in a dispute over issues including office closures.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will walk out later this month and in October.

The union announced that its members in the department’s finance directorate will strike for 13 days from September 24, and those in the resilience, emergencies and recovery directorate will take eight days of strike action from October 1.

The union said the dispute was over plans to close regional offices as well as office attendance targets.

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “Our members are being asked to pay the price for decisions that make little sense for staff, communities or the effective delivery of public services.

“We need MHCLG to stop closing regional offices, rethink its rigid approach to attendance and get back around the table with PCS to find a fair solution.”

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “We are engaging extensively with unions and staff to resolve this dispute and do not believe the current action is an appropriate response to the issues raised.

“All staff affected will be able to continue in their roles and we will continue to have an office in every English region as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“Office attendance is an important element of how we work and the approach to this has not changed since 2024.”