Jones was a proponent of the free market, associated with the Adam Smith Institute and a member of the No Turning Back group, but he called for steps to address pollution as early as 1984. He served on the Commons environment select committee from 1983 to 1994, as its chairman from 1992 to 1994. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the junior transport ministers Michael Spicer and Peter Bottomley in 1986. His appointment as a government minister was delayed until July 1994, when John Major appointed him as a junior minister in the Department of the Environment. He was promoted to Minister of State for Construction, Planning and Energy Efficiency in 1995, remaining in that office until 1997.