When Baldwin succeeded Law in 1924, Wood was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain. The two served at the Ministry of Health from 11 November 1924 to 4 June 1929, becoming friends and firm political allies. They worked closely together on local government reform, including a radical updating of local taxation, the "rates", based on property values. Wood's political standing was marked by his appointment as a civil commissioner during the general strike of 1926, and, unusually for a junior minister, as a privy councillor in 1928. In 1930 he was elected as the first chairman of the executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations.