The government is expected to announce the introduction of a national landlord register in England on Wednesday as part of its so-called ‘levelling up’ agenda. 

The Times has been informed that Housing Secretary Michael Gove will announce on Wednesday that a register will be one of the elements in a package of measures aiming to halve the number of poor quality rental homes by 2030.

Another element may be some form of compulsory redress membership for landlords.

The leak to the newspaper suggests that landlords would be made responsible for improving the physical conditions of an estimated 1.1m rental properties that – according to the latest English Housing Survey – do not yet meet the ‘decent homes standard’ set out by government.

This could include legislation requiring landlords to improve energy efficiency in some 800,000 properties considered to fail ‘safe, warm and in a good state of repair’ criteria.

Pressure group Generation Rent, which has been calling for a mandatory national register for some years, has told its supporters: “This is a vital step in raising standards in private rented homes. We must keep pushing to ensure this register is as good for renters as possible.”

You can see The Times story here, but for some readers it may be behind a paywall.