The newly re-elected Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester - Andy Burnham - wants to end Right To Buy on new-build homes and has pledged a crackdown on rogue private landlords.
Writing in The Guardian, Burnham says one of the reasons why housing often doesn’t feature at many elections is because promises at past elections to build hundreds of thousands of homes simply aren’t meaningful.
But now he says: “Just as Greater Manchester was first to end deregulation of buses, we now want to see the suspension of the right to buy policy from any new council homes we build in our city-region” as part of a plan to solve the housing crisis.
Burnham states: “One of the main reasons why the country has not built enough social homes for decades is because of the right to buy policy. Councils do not have an incentive to fund the building of new homes if they can be sold off cheaply and quickly. In the face of a desperate housing crisis, the existence of right to buy means we are in effect trying to refill a bath without being allowed to put the plug back in.”
He proposes to build “a new generation of council homes” in all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester and at least 10,000 within this four year mayoral term.
“To raise standards, we will bring in a new good landlord charter and give our residents in rented accommodation the right to request a property check. We will take tougher enforcement against landlords who rent out unfit and unsafe homes, including making much greater use of compulsory purchase powers.”
Burnham’s Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter has many controversial ideas including giving all renters the right to request a property check, boosting inspection and enforcement capability, and greater accountability of landlords to tenants.
When he first raised the idea of a Good Landlord Charter early in 2023, having made the commitment back in 2021., he said it would cover both the private and social housing sectors, and he commented: “Once again, Greater Manchester is leading the way and making a decisive move towards a new approach – one that we hope will join the dots between housing, health, wellbeing, and everything in between.
“From the way he led the government response to the appalling death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale, I know that the Secretary of State understands the importance of this, and why we need better housing, stronger enforcement, and greater accountability across the board.
“So do many partners across our city-region’s social and private rented sector – which is why we want to work with them to create a Charter that is as fair and robust as possible, and establishes a clear set of expectations for landlords and tenants.”
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Along with the Good Landlord Charter, how about levelling the playing field with a Good Tenant Charter? I'd be happy with the one if they agreed to the other.
The problem you have is landlords are employing letting agents who don't give a Toss about who they get to rent property .I know my opinion may be one sided I'm speaking from experience ...who helped evict a horrible tenant with my landlord who was 11k out of pocket as the tenant knew how to rip an innocent woman of ..I feel the system is open to fraudsters. And if a tenant pleads homeless after possession order the courts give soft touch for up to 6 weeks. .most genuine landlord and tenants can sort things out its all money oriented with letting agents. No offence to that body of people just being blunt
Andrew - I had the experience with my agent. Terrible tenants pass their referencing system. They don't ask for much from the tenants as they don't want the answers.
My tenants are referenced on the basis that they pass for rent and legal expenses insurance. If the insurers won't risk it, why should I?
Next it will be compulsory purchase orders on good landlord properties. An easy way for a Council to obtain cheap social housing.
I'm coming up to 56 and have long term health issues, but the govt seem to hate us for spending our hard-won capital on putting a roof over other people's heads. So if they want to make an offer that is fair and and reasonable then I would be quite happy to sell some or all of my BTLs and spend the rest of my days having a nice time and just focus on my part time teaching work instead of also attending to my properties and tenants.
Margaret... I fear that's exactly what's around the corner, compulsory purchases. Sell whilst you still can is my view because compulsory purchases will always be well under market value.
The UK already has the fourth highest % of social housing stock in the OECD. We need more supply generally, immigration needs to be managed and landlords need tax incentives to invest.
He completely misses the Elephant in the Room - Need. Many Council properties are occupied by people with incomes sufficient to rent or purchase in the Private Sector as we've seen with the likes of Dianne Abbot and other MPs and Trade Union Leaders living in one, when they should be for the poorest. Instead of ending Right to Buy, perhaps the Council offering Mortgages to people who vacate for an Open Market property would support social mobility without losing Housing Stock.
Not sure how they would do it, but tend to agree, social housing should be for those in need, and if your circumstances improve then you should move on and free up a property for someone who needs it.
Many council employees and councilors themselves live in council houses enjoying the low subsidised rents
The big issue is that council rents are subsidised, whether or not the tenant needs it. They should end or considerably curtail the overgenerous RTB, charge market rate and use the extra money to subsidise only those who are actually in need, in the same way that educational institutions have long provided scholarships to those who would otherwise be shut out. Then use the rest of the money to improve the existing stock and build new stock.
I am with him on ending the RTB, been against it from moment one 👎🏻 . I can see trouble ahead though for the rest of us in Manchester 😬😬
This self serving balloon is at it again, rather like the other self serving balloon in London.
At least 10k homes over 4 years?!? Like that is going to make an impact so that would equate to 40k people based on annual renting data.
PRS is housing approx 11million Andy.... Just think about that for a moment when you tighten the screw and they exit. You will need to build a lot more than that and a whole lot quicker.
Compulsory purchase will take longer and cost more.
I'd say a lot of panic issues
Another lefty who wants to splash eveyone elses' cash. Will get poor value at the end too.
I see the so called Tory MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke has just defected to Labour. She's always anti landlord. That's where she belongs with Michael Gove.
She was the MP who tabled the recent amendment requiring landlords to pay tenants' moving costs/months of rent when a tenancy ended.
It's her name that crops up a lot (other than Gove) when sticking the knife in.
Silly mare thinks Labour will stop the boats! 😱 She is deluded.🤪
She certaintly is. I am about to tweet good riddance to her.
Any Conservative MP who doesn't hold Conservative beliefs should not be in the party. It is not fair to those who have voted for you and who have put their trust in you.
And she was supposedly on the right wing of the Tory party! More evidence that Labour-Tories are interchangeable. Same sh*t, different coloured rosette. Why anyone gives either of those parties their vote beats me.
Ellie - the days of MPs being fair and honouring the trust put in them have long gone. We need a huge reset (and not a WEF style one!)
Ellie,
Don’t hold Conservative beliefs? Well, that’s most of the buggers then!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Annoyed, Don't give in to hate. That leads to the dark side
Nick's right. We have to love our enemies and do good to those who harm us and steal what belongs to us.
Why don’t they get off our case everyone jumping on the bandwagon based on here say. Who are those rogue landlords you keep on about do they exist, tell us who they are and if you don’t know, you and Andy don’t know what you are talking about only gossip.
I know his exact patch where he comes from. I was site Foreman for the removal the disused railway bank & site enlargement and the Building of Offices, Yard and Fabricating Workshops for one of the largest Contractors in the UK at the time that was in 1969 Goldborne Lancashire, where was Andy Burnham not even born but now knows we are all Rogues. His comments are groundless and is not based on experience. Maybe Paul Shamplina could give him a course.
Don't like Burnham aggressive behaviour its power with him . Paul shampolina knows the ropes. To many people up there own backsides giving opinions. With no knowledge of certain issues. /Burnham .. .
Infuriating - again clamp down on the so called rogue landlords!
What about a clamping down on “Rogue Tenants” that the system is all set up to favour these tenants that are given unreasonable rights to abuse landlords!
Took just over 8 months to get rid of my “rogue tenants” that owe me over £20,000 in rent, plus court/legal fees. Stole my furniture and caused damage to the property amounting to a further £25,000! Got a CCJ, but no point enforcing as they have been rehoused, are self employed and since found out they are wanted by the Romanian police as fugitives, but strangely enough by passed the referencing via the estate agents.
And to top it all DPS will not handover their deposit (of only £2992), for the rent arrears as the DPS have requested a variation in the CCJ that makes mention of the DPS deposit in the order to state the deposit must be handed over to the landlord. This will take months or years to do, all because the tenant has the right to refuse the deposit going back to the landlord for the rent arrears, DPS will not handle the case in house they have requested it go back to court oh.. at my expense as the tenants will not be making any claims!
DPS are a nightmare deposit scheme- warning any landlords in advance to not bother using, they are useless!
Why is it all about the tenants - What about the decent landlords?
100% agree. DPS have a leftist agenda, plain to see.
DPS were hell bent on giving my tenants the deposit. I could show arrears to got a good proportion back. But they disregard everything. I have a whole load of rubbish in the house. Lived there for 4 years but they say I can't prove it's theirs and not mine! Terrible people.
Gaurantors are a must now, atleast you would have someone else to go after then
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