Mayor Burnham calls for power to apply mandatory decent homes standard to rented homes

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has called on the Government to hand the Greater Manchester Combined Authority powers to apply a "mandatory and ambitious" decent homes standard to all rented homes as part of the region's devolution deal.

The request came in a speech at the Housing 2023 conference in Manchester today (27 June), in which Mayor Burnham urged the Government to hand the city-region a set of new or enhanced powers and resources using the combined authority's trailblazer devolution deal announced in this year's Spring Budget.

In addition to the ability to set a mandatory decent homes standard, the Mayor proposed a package of powers, which included the power to acquire properties from landlords who are unable or unwilling to meet standards.

This would ensure that poor landlords exit the sector while retaining and improving their properties for local residents, the combined authority said.

He also detailed wishes to implement enhanced enforcement teams within councils with the powers to protect tenants if they have problems with their landlord or home. This would be accompanied by a universal, mandatory 'Property Portal' or register of landlords – a measure proposed within the Renters Reform Bill.

To enforce the policies, the Mayor called for an independent inspection regime of rented properties to find those homes below standards. The combined authority said this would allow tenants to report poor conditions and call for improvement while protecting them from eviction.

The package also calls for the ability to create a 'Property Improvement Plan' for every rented home, setting out how landlords can get their properties up to the decent homes standard.

The Mayor said he wishes to have the powers in place by autumn 2024, to build on the forthcoming Renter's Reform Bill currently moving through Parliament.

Speaking at the Housing 2023 conference, Mayor Burnham said: "Personally, I believe we will only get the sea change on housing that we need when we make a good, safe, secure home a human right in UK law.

"That change would require action on many more levels – including much great focus on the state of the existing housing stock and the urgent need to build hundreds of thousands of homes for social rent.

"Until that time, we are using what powers we have in our Trailblazer Devolution deal to set ourselves a 15-year new mission for Greater Manchester: a healthy home for all by 2038."

Burnham added: "In simple terms, that means a home that doesn't damage your physical health through damp, mould and other physical hazards and doesn't harm your mental health because you live in fear of eviction.

"To achieve this, we are proposing a complete re-wiring of the system to put power in the hands of tenants – but, in doing so, make it work better for everyone: tenants, landlords and local communities."

Experimental official data published for the first time this month by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show that in 2019 almost 12 per cent of all homes in Greater Manchester had a category one health and safety hazard – the most serious category where a hazard poses a serious risk of harm – while over 17 per cent did not meet the current decent homes standard.

In announcing the agreement of the trailblazer deal, then subject to ratification, with Manchester in his Spring 2022 statement, Jeremy Hunt said: "These deals equip the authorities with new levers over local transport, employment, housing, innovation and Net Zero priorities, a long term commitment to local authorities retaining 100% of their business rates, and include a commitment to provide these MCAS with single multi-year funding settlements at the next Spending Review."

Adam Carey