Michael Gove MP has announced that 3 councils have received a share of £14 million to roll out projects aimed at finding new approaches to improving housing standards in the private rented sector (PRS) and to target better housing enforcement action.

The announcement came at the same time as the Secretary of State at DLUHC announced that, following on from the death of 2 year old Awaab Ishak, the Government was stripping Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), the provider of the flat where Awaab lived, of the £1 million of funding it was due to receive under the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-2026 funding round. In addition, the housing association will not receive any new AHP contracts for new homes until after the Regulator of Social Housing has completed its investigation into RBH and RBH can prove that it is a "responsible landlord".

The £14 million of funding related to PRS housing standards is for 7 areas in the country with high numbers of poor private rented sector homes "to crack down on rogue landlords and test new approaches to driving up standards", both housing standards and the standards of management of PRS landlords. DLUHC highlighted 3 of the projects being funded:

1. £2.3 million for Greater Manchester - including Rochdale and surrounding areas - to increase the use of fines where a landlord is found to have committed an offence;
2. £678,000 for Leeds [Council] to use behavioural science to change culture among landlords, improving knowledge and skills;
3. £1.14 million for Cornwall to create a database of private rented accommodation in the area and record standards to target better enforcement action.

Of the stripping of funding from RBH Mr Gove said "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".

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