Better Renting Greater Manchester
Supporting landlords to raise standards in private renting
Better Renting Greater Manchester is a project co-funded by Nationwide Foundation, helping landlords to understand their responsibilities, improve how they manage properties and tenancies, and provide better homes for renters.
By making it easier for landlords to access clear, practical information and support, the project aims to improve compliance and raise standards across Greater Manchester’s private rented sector.
We have initially invested £170,000 from March 2026 to 2027 in the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) to deliver the project, which has strong links with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Good Landlord Charter.
Helping landlords get it right
Private landlords have an important role to play in providing safe, good-quality homes. With the Renters’ Rights Act bringing significant changes to the private rented sector, having clear, accessible information will be increasingly important in helping landlords understand and meet their responsibilities.
Better Renting Greater Manchester is exploring how better information, communications informed by how people think and behave, and new approaches can help landlords who want to do the right thing, meet their legal responsibilities and improve their practices.
The project builds on learning from a government-funded Pathfinder project in Leeds (opens in new window), which explored how communications and resources informed by behavioural science could support landlords who were unintentionally not complying with their responsibilities.
By taking this learning into Greater Manchester, the project aims to understand what works and how these approaches could help improve standards in the private rented sector more widely.
From local action to wider change
Through Better Renting Greater Manchester, we want to:
- Improve housing standards in Greater Manchester
- Support more landlords to meet the standards of the Good Landlord Charter and become Charter supporters
- Better understand the barriers landlords face when trying to meet their responsibilities
- Build on the Leeds Pathfinder project, deepen understanding of landlords who unintentionally fail to comply, and demonstrate how behavioural science-informed approaches could strengthen self-regulation among private landlords
- Develop practical learning and a toolkit that can be shared with local and central government and others working with landlords
- Use the learning to help inform the development of the Private Rented Sector Landlord Database, particularly how it could communicate with and support landlords
Building the evidence
Research is an important part of Better Renting Greater Manchester.
Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) commissioned research for the first phase of the project to better understand the barriers well-meaning landlords in Greater Manchester face when trying to comply with changing private rented sector requirements.
The findings are helping to shape the approaches being developed and tested through the project: New TDS research explores what helps landlords comply with changing PRS rules (opens in new window) and TDS Housing Research (opens in new window).
Find out more
Find out more about Better Renting Greater Manchester, including information and resources for landlords:
You can also watch the July 2026 launch webinar to hear more about the project and what it aims to achieve:
Explore further insights from Tenancy Deposit Scheme on supporting landlords to understand and meet their responsibilities:
For more information about the Nationwide Foundation’s involvement in the project, contact Rory Hughes at rory.hughes@nationwidefoundation.org.uk.
