Good Landlord Charter
The Good Landlord Charter is a voluntary standards scheme for residential landlords in Greater Manchester, launched by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to recognise landlords who go beyond their legal obligations. It applies to both private and social landlords across the city-region's ten boroughs and sets 21 membership criteria covering affordability, safety, inclusivity and management, all pitched higher than the minimum the law requires.
Who runs the Good Landlord Charter
The Charter was developed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and launched by Mayor Andy Burnham, following a coordinating group that met through 2023 and a public consultation in early 2024. Day-to-day delivery sits with an independent Implementation Unit run by TDS, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, which operates at arm's length from the combined authority and the borough councils. A Governing Board of tenants, landlords and industry bodies, including the National Residential Landlords Association, oversees its direction.
Who can join, and is it free
The Charter is free and entirely voluntary. It is open to landlords letting residential property in any of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. It deliberately covers both the private and social rented sectors, which makes it broader than a conventional landlord accreditation scheme. There is no fee to register and no requirement to take part.
What standards the Charter sets
The Charter sets 21 membership criteria grouped into seven categories: affordable, inclusive, private and secure, responsive, supportive, well managed, and safe and decent. In practice these cover clear rent-setting, fair treatment of tenants in arrears, reasonable adaptations, sensible access arrangements, published repair response times, an independent complaints stage, transparent contracts, and competent management or training. Every criterion is set above the statutory floor. The energy criterion, for example, asks landlords to reach EPC C within achievable timescales, ahead of the current legal minimum.
Becoming a Supporter, then a Member
The scheme runs in two stages. Landlords first register as Supporters, pledging their commitment and demonstrating that they already meet their legal obligations. They then work towards full Membership, which means satisfying all 21 criteria against an assessment framework the Implementation Unit is still developing. Supporter registration opened in April 2025 and the Charter was formally launched in June 2025. From working with self-managing landlords across the UK, we find the Supporter stage is straightforward for anyone already keeping clean compliance records; the gap is usually evidence, not effort. This is often most relevant to smaller and accidental landlords, who may already meet much of the Charter without realising it but have never recorded their practice in one place.
How the Charter relates to the law
The Charter is not legislation and carries no legal penalties of its own. It sits above the statutory baseline, asking landlords to exceed the minimum standards set by the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which came into force on 1 May 2026, and the Decent Homes Standard that the Act extends to the private rented sector. Where the Act defines what every landlord must do, the Charter defines what a good landlord chooses to do beyond that.
Why it matters for landlords
By late 2025 more than 100 landlords had registered as Supporters, covering over 234,000 homes, roughly half of all rented households in Greater Manchester. Beyond public recognition, the Charter has been linked to practical incentives: Supporters can access the Warm Homes: Local Grant, worth up to £30,000 per property, to improve energy efficiency. In our experience supporting self-managing landlords, the hardest part of any voluntary scheme is producing the evidence, not meeting the standard. A clear, exportable record of certificates, notices and tenancy events is what lets a landlord evidence their compliance position when it counts. Whether or not the scheme is expanded nationally, it signals the direction of travel for how responsible landlords will be expected to demonstrate their standards.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Good Landlord Charter mandatory?
No. It is a voluntary scheme. Landlords choose whether to take part, and there is no legal obligation or penalty attached to staying outside it.
Does the Charter apply outside Greater Manchester?
Not currently. It is a regional scheme limited to the ten Greater Manchester boroughs, although it is described as the first of its kind and may influence similar schemes elsewhere.
How can tenants check if a landlord supports the Charter?
The official Charter website publishes a directory of Good Landlord Supporters, and tenants can also report a Supporter who fails to meet the standards they have pledged to uphold.
