Michael Gove recently made an announcement about taking on rogue landlords when saying that “the government will always act to protect tenants.”

The claim was part of an announcement about funding seven districts in their fight against rogue private landlords. However Gove made his intentions known of cutting back funding for inadequate social housing landlords in wake of the tragic and death of Awaab Ishak.

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities  (DLUHC) announced that £14m will be  awarded to seven areas with large numbers of poor PRS homes  “to crack down on rogue landlords and test new approaches to driving up standards.”

Funded areas include Greater Manchester with Rochdale and surrounding councils with a grant of £2.3 million, to ensure adequate resources to increase the number of fines for private landlords who have committed offences. Leeds will be given £678,000 to use what is termed as behavioural science to change landlords’ mindsets by improving their skills and knowledge; Cornwall will receive £1.14 million to set up a database of private rented ‘residences’ in the county and record standards so better enforcement action can be taken in the future.

Regarding the social landlord that housed the Ishak family, RBH (Rochdale Boroughwide Housing)  will now not receive its taken for granted £1million government funding from the Affordable Homes Programme, and will not be awarded any AHP contracts for new homes.

However when the Regulator of Social Housing’s investigation into the case has been concluded and if RHB can categorically prove that it is ‘fit for purpose’ as a landlord, it may then receive new AHP funding and contracts.

Michael Gove says his department will be closely monitoring housing standards of RBH tenancies and will work alongside the Regulator and Ombudsman to make certain that tenants have a good and proper standard of ‘homes’.

The housing secretary also made it known that as part of a much wider clampdown on poor housing standards, Gove stated he will stop any further AHP funding for housing providers that fails to follow Regulator’s consumer standards until they make the necessary improvements. He also added that he is seriously considering stripping housing providers breaching standards of their existing AHP funding, unless they have already started on - site developments.

The announcement of his plans follows Gove writing to councils and housing associations last weekend (26-27th Nov), telling them that their standards must drastically improve and demanding that they immediately redress any damp and mould issues in tenants’ homes when receiving complaints.

Gove says: “RBH failed its tenants so it will not receive a penny of additional taxpayers’ money for new housing until it gets its act together and does right by tenants. Let this be a warning to other housing providers who are ignoring complaints and failing in their obligations to tenants. We will not hesitate to act.