Angela Rayner to announce renters’ protections at opening of Labour Party conference! B
The deputy prime minister will kick off the party conference with a speech on housing – against the backdrop of a row over the prime minister accepting freebies.
Angela Rayner will set out measures to protect renters from fire safety defects, damp and mould in her speech at the Labour Party conference.
The deputy prime minister, who is also the housing secretary, will commit to “building homes fit for the future” when she opens the party’s first annual gathering since winning the general election.
The package will include bringing forward a Remediation Acceleration Plan this autumn to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings.
Deadly cladding remains on more than half of all residential blocks of flats identified as at risk since the Grenfell fire in 2017.
The issue has come back into the spotlight following the conclusion of the inquiry into the tragedy, which found that “systematic dishonesty” contributed to the blaze that killed 72 people.
The announcement of the acceleration plan was thin on detail, but the government said it would go “further and faster to fix unsafe cladding and make existing homes safe”.
Other measures Ms Rayner will announce tomorrow include consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard for the social and private rented sectors, and a new law to make landlords respond to complaints about disrepair within legally binding timescales.
These have already been announced as part of Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which builds on long-awaited legislation that was promised by the Tories but ultimately shelved ahead of the general election.
The law regarding repairs will be named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died as a direct result of exposure to mould in the social home his family rented in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.