Andy Burnham has renewed calls for tougher action against rogue landlords, saying councils should have a simpler route to take over substandard rental homes where owners ignore repeated warnings.
Speaking on the Social Housing Podcast, the Greater Manchester mayor said he wanted a “three warnings and you’re out” approach for landlords who refuse to bring homes up to a decent standard. He argued that compulsory purchase powers should be easier to use where poor conditions persist and local authorities have already set deadlines for work to be done.
Burnham wants faster powers over poor-quality rentals
Burnham said the current compulsory purchase process is too slow and expensive for councils to use at scale. For landlords, that matters because it points to the direction of travel in enforcement – more intervention, lower tolerance for repeat failures, and more pressure on government to give councils sharper tools.
The comments land at a time when enforcement is already moving up the agenda. Landlord Knowledge’s recent reporting on landlord fines found English councils had issued at least £5.2m in penalties, while our earlier coverage of Burnham’s call for compulsory purchase powers showed this debate is not going away. Burnham’s latest comments came in the Social Housing Podcast interview.
Burnham also pointed to Greater Manchester’s Good Landlord Charter as a way of drawing a clearer line between compliant operators and those who repeatedly fall short. His argument was that stronger recognition for better landlords should sit alongside tougher sanctions for the worst performers.
Why this matters beyond Greater Manchester
At this stage, Burnham’s proposal is not new law. It is a political signal. But for landlords, especially those with older stock or properties in cities with active enforcement teams, it is a sign that standards policy is moving from fines and notices toward stronger intervention in repeat cases.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s April coverage of uneven council readiness for Renters’ Rights Act enforcement, which showed how patchy enforcement capacity still was across England. Burnham’s latest comments suggest some metro mayors want powers to move faster than Westminster has so far allowed.
The practical warning for landlords is that poor compliance is becoming harder to treat as an admin issue. Where councils can build a record of hazards, missed deadlines, or repeat breaches, the political appetite is clearly growing for much tougher penalties.
Burnham made the comments in a wider discussion about housing supply, standards and the role of the private rented sector. While many landlords will see the proposal as aimed at a small minority, policy framed around rogue operators often ends up widening paperwork and evidence demands for the wider market too.
What this means for landlords
- If you own older stock: review hazard, damp, fire safety and repair records before a council asks for them.
- If you have open enforcement issues: do not let informal warnings drift – the direction of policy is toward escalation, not leniency.
- Watch for: more combined use of charter schemes, licensing conditions and civil penalties to build cases against repeat offenders.
- Bottom line: even if new powers are not imminent, the political mood is turning against landlords who miss basic standards.
Editor’s view
Most landlords will read this and assume it is aimed at somebody else. That is usually how enforcement creep works. Once councils are handed stronger tools for the worst cases, the burden of proof and record-keeping tends to spread much wider.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 26 May 2026
Sources: Social Housing Podcast, Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter
Related reading: Burnham calls for CPO powers to seize non-decent rental homes
