The Government has promised to make council acquisition of some of the worst-quality privately rented homes easier when landlords refuse to improve them.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his Labour conference speech on 29th September 2026 to say landlords renting out the poorest-quality homes would first be warned to carry out improvements. If they refused, he said ministers would make council acquisition easier and “legislate if necessary”.
The council acquisition announcement is potentially significant, but the legal route has not yet been published. There is no new acquisition power that councils can use today, and the speech did not set out thresholds, valuation rules, compensation arrangements, the procedure a council would have to follow or the territorial scope of any new law.
Council acquisition comes after a warning
In the Prime Minister’s conference speech, Andy Burnham said poor rented homes could damage residents’ health and the streets around them.
He said landlords responsible for the “worst quality homes” would be warned to improve them. If they did not, the Government would “make it much easier for councils to acquire those homes”.
That is stronger than simply promising tougher enforcement, because council acquisition could move a property out of private ownership altogether. But the speech did not explain whether ministers are considering changes to compulsory purchase powers, a new statutory purchase mechanism, expanded acquisition funding, or another route.
That missing detail matters. Councils do not start from zero. In England, current compulsory purchase guidance says section 17 of the Housing Act 1985 already allows local housing authorities to acquire land, houses and other property for housing purposes, including by compulsion. The guidance identifies bringing empty homes back into use and improving substandard or defective properties as established uses of the power.
The practical question is therefore what Burnham means by making council acquisition “much easier”. Existing compulsory purchase still requires a statutory purpose, justification in the public interest and compensation, while voluntary acquisition depends on an owner agreeing to sell. The speech did not say which of those hurdles would change.
Different from the empty homes reforms
The announcement of council acquisition sits beside, but should not be confused with, the Government’s separate plan to strengthen action on empty homes.
Burnham said councils would also be given power to take control of empty homes and bring them back into the public housing stock. Ministers had already announced proposals to reduce the qualifying period for an Empty Dwelling Management Order from two years to six months.
An Empty Dwelling Management Order does not transfer ownership. It gives a council management control while the owner remains the proprietor. The new conference pledge on poor-quality occupied rented homes appears to contemplate something different because the Prime Minister spoke expressly about councils acquiring the homes.
Industry wants the missing detail
Letting Agent Today reported Propertymark as calling for clarification. Its head of policy and campaigns, Timothy Douglas, was reported as saying: “The focus should be on making better use of existing tools rather than simply adding another layer of legislation.”
He also questioned how remedial work would be handled with tenants still living in a property, where responsibilities would sit and how homes would be managed if they passed into council control or ownership.
The concern is practical as much as political. Council acquisition of a seriously defective home could bring substantial repair costs with it. The price, funding route and condition standard could therefore determine whether the power becomes a frequently used intervention or a last-resort threat.
Right to Buy is being pulled in the other direction
The same speech also promised further Right to Buy reform, removing the right from newly built council homes while leaving it in place for people already living in existing homes. Detailed territorial provisions have not yet been published.
Burnham described the aim as rebuilding public housing stock both by constructing new council homes and by acting on privately owned stock. That sits alongside the Government’s wider affordable housing programme and this week’s proposed changes to disposal rules for existing social housing.
For development work, the wider direction is worth watching. Government policy is increasingly concerned not only with granting permission for new homes, but with who ultimately owns housing, which tenure it enters and whether existing stock stays available to the public sector.
Nothing changes for landlords or councils yet
The council acquisition proposal is currently a policy pledge rather than legislation. No Bill, consultation or detailed Government paper setting out the mechanism had been published when this article was prepared.
That means councils cannot rely on a new power today, and landlords do not face a new acquisition test merely because a home is in poor repair.
Existing housing standards, enforcement powers, licensing regimes and compulsory purchase legislation continue to apply. The next important document will be the Government’s promised plan for Britain, or earlier legislation or consultation if ministers decide to move sooner.
For Planning Geek readers, this is principally housing and property policy rather than a change to planning permission. Its planning relevance will become clearer if the eventual council acquisition mechanism interacts with regeneration, compulsory purchase, redevelopment or bringing acquired homes into new forms of use.
0 Comments