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GMCA ‘confident’ social landlords will sign up to new Awaab Ishak-inspired scheme
A “large proportion” of social landlords in Greater Manchester are expected to sign a new charter aimed at boosting housing standards, according to the region’s combined authority.
A six-week consultation on how the voluntary Good Landlord Charter will operate was launched this week by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
The scheme will involve private and social landlords applying to become a member by showing they are meeting “legal minimum standards” for renting homes.
Among the charter’s aims are to ensure housing providers “respond satisfactorily to requests for repairs, correspondence and complaints”, while a tenant should “understand how their rent and other charges are set and should not be ripped off”.
Under the scheme, tenants would be able to complain and landlords would potentially lose their membership of the charter.
Mr Burnham said the idea was partly initiated by the “devastating conclusions” from the inquest of Awaab Ishak. The two year-old died after exposure to mould in his family’s flat, which was owned by housing association Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH).
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It comes as the government this week confirmed plans for Awaab’s Law, which includes forcing social landlords to carry out emergency repairs within 24 hours.
Mr Burnham said: “I believe this charter will be good for tenants who currently have no way of knowing whether a landlord is decent or not, and good for the many landlords doing the right thing and struggling to differentiate themselves from the disreputable end of the market.”
The charter would also be open to landlords operating supported and exempt accommodation, which has proved an area of controversy.
In the 32-page consultation document, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) said it is “confident that a large proportion of GM [Greater Manchester] social landlords will take part in the charter due to the participation of the Greater Manchester Housing Providers [GMHP] in its development”.
It added: “This means that the overwhelming majority of social housing in Greater Manchester would be covered by the charter.”
GMHP represents 24 housing associations operating in the region, including Great Places Housing Group, ForHousing, Jigsaw, Mosscare St Vincent’s (MSV), Together Housing and RBH. National landlords L&Q, The Guinness Partnership and Riverside are also members.
Members of GMHP manage around 250,000 homes in the region.
Charlie Norman, chair of GMHP and chief executive of MSV, said its members “absolutely welcome the opportunity to work with the mayor, wider stakeholders and, most importantly, tenants and residents across Greater Manchester to help further develop this charter”.
Mark Slater, chair of the Rochdale branch at the Greater Manchester Tenants Union, said the scope of the charter had been “expanded” to ensure housing associations, councils and temporary and specialist accommodation providers “deliver appropriate standards in their homes, prompted by the preventable death of Awaab Ishak”.
The initiative is being modelled on the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter that launched in 2019.
The consultation on the Good Landlord Charter ends on 26 February.
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