Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to make it easier for councils to acquire the worst-quality rented homes after landlords ignore improvement warnings, but no Bill, start date or new legal power has been published.
In his 29 September Labour Party Conference speech, Burnham said councils would first issue warnings to improve properties. If a landlord refused, he said the Government would make acquisition easier and legislate if necessary. The speech did not set an acquisition test, appeal route or funding detail.
For landlords, the relevant distinction is between the political direction and the rulebook that applies today. The speech is aimed at the most serious disrepair and long-running neglect cases, not routine repairs. But it puts the quality of older or poorly maintained rental stock firmly inside the wider housing plan.
Council homes and rental standards sit in the same plan
Burnham said the Government would pursue the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war era, led by Angela Rayner. He said councils would be helped to build on unused public land and that Right to Buy would be reformed so that existing tenants would keep their right while newly built council homes would not be sold under the scheme.
He also promised councils powers to take control of empty homes and return them to public housing stock. Residential Landlord recently reported on the separate proposal to reduce the intervention threshold for long-term empty homes to six months. That measure is likewise not yet in force.
The private-rental element is more targeted. Burnham described homes that harm residents’ health and affect the streets around them, and said an owner would be warned before a council acquisition route was considered. The speech did not define “worst quality”, set out the length or form of a warning, or say whether existing compulsory-purchase procedures would be amended.
Existing enforcement duties remain the live issue
Councils already have enforcement routes where a rented home contains serious hazards. The current Government HHSRS landlord and agent guide remains the practical reference point for issues such as damp and mould, excess cold, fire and electrical safety.
That means a landlord should not wait for a possible future acquisition measure before acting on a serious repair report. Prompt inspection, clear tenant communication, contractor instructions and retained evidence of completed work are the practical safeguards under the present system. They also help show that a reported problem did not become a record of inaction.
There is an important limit to the announcement. A warning to improve is not the same as an acquisition notice, and a conference speech does not change the existing legal tests for enforcement or compulsory purchase. Any new route would need legislation or another formal legal mechanism, with its scope and safeguards set out at that stage.
Deposit, leasehold and empty-home pledges also announced
Elsewhere in the housing section of the speech, Burnham said a “Your First Home” offer would reduce the size of deposits for first-time buyers, but did not give eligibility, funding or delivery details. He also promised a leasehold reform Bill before Christmas.
Those pledges point to a broader effort to increase public housing supply, bring empty stock back into use and support home ownership. For the private rented sector, however, the immediate effect is limited: the proposal about poor-quality rentals has not yet become a new compliance regime.
Opinion
Burnham’s speech combines a social-housing ambition with a pointed message for the small minority of landlords who allow homes to become unsafe. The case for intervening in genuinely harmful properties is easier to make than the case for a broad new power with unclear tests. If the Government legislates, it will need to draw that line carefully – with a clear hazard threshold, a transparent warning process and safeguards for owners who are demonstrably putting a problem right.
