Barack Obama has chosen Shaun Donovan, a Harvard-educated New York City official with a background in affordable housing, as his nominee to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In a radio address, Mr Obama said he wanted his administration to take an aggressive approach to mitigating foreclosures and ensure as many people as possible were able to stay in their homes in spite of plunging house prices and rising unemployment.

”This plan will only work with a comprehensive, co-ordinated federal effort to make it a reality,” Mr Obama said.

”We need every part of our government working together – from the Treasury Department to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that protects the money you’ve put in the bank. And few will be more essential to this effort than the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

Mr Donovan was deputy assistant secretary at HUD during the Clinton administration. He later worked at Prudential Mortgage Capital.

In 2004, Michael Bloomberg, New York mayor, named him commissioner of the city’s housing department.

As a New York official, Mr Donovan managed one of the largest affordable housing programmes in the nation – attempting to expand low-cost housing amid pressure for commercial and high-end residential development.

He holds masters degrees in public administration and architecture from Harvard.