Andy Burnham fires warning to rogue landlords ahead of major announcement

Andy Burnham has vowed not to let rogue landlords 'off the hook' ahead of a major announcement on housing. The mayor of Greater Manchester is set to launch a consultation on a new Good Landlord Charter later today (January 8) in a bid to drive up standards in both the private and social rented sectors.

It comes as figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) released last year showed that in 2019, more than 26 per cent of private rented homes in Greater Manchester failed to meet the decent homes standard. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 this morning, Mr Burnham said: "I recognise that there are many landlords out there, trying to do the right thing.

"But there are some who are not, and I'm not going to let them off the hook." Full details on the proposed Good Landlord Charter are yet to be revealed, but Mr Burnham told the Today programme it would be a 'voluntary' scheme that would give landlords the chance to 'differentiate themselves from poor landlords' and prevent them being 'tarred with the same brush'.

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He also spoke of a proposed new Greater Manchester property check, which would give tenants 'the right to request a check on the standard of their home', plus tougher enforcement. The move follows the tragedy of Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old boy whose death in December 2020 was linked to mould at his family's social flat in Rochdale.

It sparked a successful campaign by the Manchester Evening News, Shelter and Change.org for strict new timeframes to inspect and repair damp and mould in social housing, known as Awaab's Law. Mr Burnham described the new legislation as a 'minimum' standard tenants should