Inside Politics: Crackdown on rogue landlords

Michael Gove announces crackdown on rogue landlords and investigation reveals failings in run up to Channel drowning incident, writes Matt Mathers

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Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Rishi Sunak won ‘Comeback of the Year’ at last night’s Spectator awards. The list of nominees for the chancellor gong was so long attendees fell asleep during the proceedings. Labour’s Rachel Reeves won that one.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway at 9.30am with transport questions, followed by any urgent questions. Penny Mordaunt presents the business statement, then the main business is debates on the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities and on the independent review of children’s social care. Labour and Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd has an adjournment debate on the death of Awaab Ishak.

Daily briefing

Rogue landlord crackdown

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, today announces a crackdown on rogue landlords following the tragic death of two year old boy Awaab Ishak, who died in Rochdale from prolonged exposure to black mould in the housing association home where he and his family lived.

Gove will strip Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) – the association that ran Awaab’s home – of £1m funding it was expected to receive from the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP). The provider will also not get any new AHP contracts for new homes, until the Regulator of Social Housing has concluded its investigation and it can prove RBH “is a responsible landlord”.

Gareth Swarbrick, RBH’s chief executive, was sacked earlier this week amid the fallout from the case of Awaab, which shocked the nation and once again shone the spotlight on some of the atrocious conditions people continue to live in across the country in 2022. He had earlier issued a defiant statement that he would not resign over the scandal.

As part of a wider crackdown on poor standards, the housing secretary will also block any housing provider that breaches the regulator’s consumer standards from new AHP funding until they make improvements. Gove will also consider stripping providers of existing AHP funding unless construction has already started on site.

The government has awarded a share of £14m for seven areas with high numbers of poor privately rented homes to crack down on rogue landlords and test new approaches to driving up standards.

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Channel crisis

Suella Braverman, appearing before a Commons committee yesterday, again conceded that the UK is failing to control its borders, telling MPs that her department needed to improve its efficiency.

There are major problems on the front line of the Channel crisis too. Today The Independent reveals that an overstretched UK coastguard team involved in a mass downing incident last year – and had been working 20 hours a day – made mistakes during the rescue mission.

At least 27 lives were lost on 24 November 2021 and five bodies are still missing.

It took the UK and French coastguards 12 hours to respond following the first mayday call, with the authorities arguing over who was responsible. By the time rescue vessels and aircraft arrived at the scene, all but two of the passengers had drowned and died of exposure.

Speaking for the first time about the conditions leading up to the events of a year ago, a source from HM Coastguard said that staff were working particularly long shifts, often with no break and were stretched to capacity.

“No one comes to work with the intention of letting people die, but, in extremely challenging circumstances, mistakes get made,” the source said.

Today’s cartoon

See all of The Independent’s daily cartoons here

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On the record

Sunak in a speech after winning The Spectator’s ‘Comeback of the Year’ award.

“I want to thank my friends, my family… and the bond markets”.

From the Twitterati

Steven Swinford, The Times politics editor, with another anecdote from the awards.

“Jeremy Hunt reveals that Boris Johnson’s gold wallpaper was painted over by Liz Truss after it started to peel off. He tells Spectator awards: ‘I will be saying to my children scratch over there, there’s gold in them walls.’”

Essential reading

• Alistair Carmichael, The Independent: The people of Scotland have many voices – Nicola Sturgeon should remember that
• Chris Stevenson, The Independent: What now for Sturgeon’s independence push?
• Paul Mason, The New European: The sick man of Europe
• Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic: The world could be entering a new era of climate war

Inside Politics first appeared in our daily morning email. You can sign up via this link.