Both private and social landlords are being encouraged to support the initiative, with membership and full accreditation dependent on their housing meeting the standards laid out in the charter.
According to GMCA the goal of the charter is to provide good landlords with an endorsement that will attract tenants and give those tenants confidence in their landlord, as well as supporting landlords to develop and offer a better rental experience.
Paul Dennett, Salford City Mayor and GMCA Housing First portfolio holder, said: “I’m optimistic that we can create a movement here where everyone feels empowered to be part of tackling exceptionally poor housing standards in Greater Manchester.
“Health and safety and having a decent place to call home has to be the absolute priority, and that has to be the priority of all of us.
“Whether we’re in local government, the combined authority, whether you’re a landlord yourself, or a tenant and resident here in Greater Manchester, the overriding focus here is a decent home, a place to call home – which we see as a fundamental human right.”
GMCA says that over 50% of rented properties in Greater Manchester are signed up to the charter already, but only 5% of those properties are in the private sector.
The charter has 21 standards across seven areas that landlords must meet in order to be accredited by the GLC, which aim to ensure housing is affordable, inclusive, private and secure, responsive, supportive, well-managed, and safe and decent.
There is no cost to be a supporter or member of the charter, and landlords who do not sign up voluntarily are likely to be subject to additional scrutiny of their properties and practices according to Mayor Dennett.
The GLC will also be implemented by a unit independent of the GMCA, run by The Dispute Service, allowing council-owned properties to be subject to the same standards and accountability.
Analysis by the combined authority has revealed that one in four private rental properties in GM do not meet the Decent Homes Standard set by national government for social housing, although private properties will be required to at least meet these standards if the Renters’ Rights Bill (RRB) becomes law.
The RRB, which is currently in the report stage in the House of Lords, contains major provisions such as the abolishment of no-fault evictions, and the application of Awaab’s Law to the private sector.
Awaab’s Law is of particular importance to the GM area, as it is named for the young boy who died due to prolonged exposure to mould in a social home owned by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, who failed to address the issue over multiple months.
An amendment to the RRB would also grant councils the right to enter properties for enforcement purposes without prior notice or permission, preventing bad landlords from pressuring tenants to withdraw complaints or covering up their negligence.
According to Mayor Dennett, this would form an important part of the GLC, allowing tenants to request a property check to ensure that their landlord is complying with the tenets of the charter.
Mark Slater, chair of the Rochdale branch of the Greater Manchester Tenants’ Union (GMTU), said: “The Good Landlord Charter is a good first step, it’s a strong first step, but it has limited powers, it’s a voluntary scheme.
“I can’t see landlords subscribing to something like a voluntary rent control, and that is really important.
“With the cost of living these days, it is so important that there are some controls in the basic human right that housing is.
“We need more social homes, but what is important is that housing is of a standard, and maintained at a standard, so that people can plan a future and live their life.”
Mayor Dennett also highlighted the importance of providing affordable housing, with one of the main GLC principles being affordability, but stressed that “we live in a capitalist system, private property is a part and parcel of the actual structure of this country”.
However, he also said: “The government has recently changed compulsory purchase order regulations, so do we look at using CPO in the future around this whole agenda?
“It’s going to be interesting to see where this goes.”
Compulsory Purchase Orders allow public authorities to acquire property in certain cases without the consent of the owner, including when housing is found to be of a sufficiently bad standard.
Charlotte Puddy, a private landlord and director of Abode Property Management, said: “The landlords I work with are, they might be doing it to make money, they’re doing it as an investment, and they want a return for that.
“But they still want to provide a good property because it’s their investment as well – they’re not going to let it fall to ruin.
“The cost of keeping these properties, whether that’s through mortgages, or finance, or maintenance and annual refurbishments, the costs are really, really, high.
“So you know, it’s not that landlords are now really benefitting because the rents have gone up, because other things have gone up in line with that.”
Enforcement of standards is also a key part of the GMCA approach to the issue of poor housing, which according to Mayor Dennett has historically been a capacity issue due to austerity.
He is hopeful that ongoing conversations on devolution and local government financing will unlock the funds needed to resource the level of enforcement necessary to root out bad landlords, and create a better reputation for the good ones.
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Featured image: Anja Jungmayr
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