The criticism by landlords aimed at Housing Secretary Michael Gove for some of his comments regarding the cladding issue, has now been echoed by letting agents.

Earlier this week Gove – speaking to MPs on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee – reiterated his policy that private landlords who rent out more than one leasehold property will not be covered by the government’s commitment that no leaseholder should have to pay to address dangerous cladding. 

He argued that this was because he did not want to support those who already had “significant means”to pay for remedial action themselves.

At the time the National Residential Landlords Association branded such comments as “lazy and false.”

Now ARLA Propertymark, although more cautious in its wording, has echoed the broad sentiment.

Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns for Propertymark, comments: “The broad assumption that has been made about the financial status of buy to let landlords shows there is more for the UK government to do to fully understand the private rented sector.

“Assuming that landlords with more than one property are ‘of significant wealth’ and therefore have the means to contribute without support could have a negative impact on the amount of time that it takes to make buildings safe and fail to restore full confidence in this area of the market.

“So while it’s a step forward to bring what the Secretary of State termed ‘landlords by default’ within the scope of the fund, the UK government must get a better grasp of the sector as a whole and ensure that all landlords, who are also leaseholders, do not have to pay for a crisis that is not of their own making, regardless of their perceived financial status.”

The NRLA says that Gove’s comments mean that whilst multi-millionaires owning and living in a single luxury penthouse would be covered by the government’s plans, landlords letting out more than one property for a pension would not be.

According to government data, 94 per cent of private landlords rent property as an individual, with 44 per cent becoming a landlord to contribute to their pension.