Industry news


London council gets tough with rogue landlords


Newham Council in east London has vowed to take strong action against rogue landlords with fines of up to £30,000 being imposed for breaches of the law. The council’s Cabinet has agreed to adopt


new powers available to all local authorities under the Housing & Planning Act 2016. They allow council officers to take direct enforcement action against criminal landlords, without the need to go through the criminal courts, adding a powerful deterrent to bad landlord behaviour.


“Council officers can take direct enforcement action against landlords without going to the criminal courts”


In addition, the new powers allow


councils to keep the money collected in fines to continue and improve the enforcement work of their PRS teams. Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales said:


Housing estates get regeneration cash boost


and the building of thousands of new homes. The 105 estates are spread from Gateshead to


H


Plymouth and are owned and managed by councils and housing associations. The money is available from the Estate Regeneration Fund, with a further £140m available in loan funds. Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said: “Our


housing white paper set out ambitious proposals to help fix the broken housing market and to encourage good design. “Estates regeneration must be locally-led, and


this £32 million fund will help breathe new life into estates throughout the country. It will help more ordinary working people have the security of a decent place to live.” The new investment follows work done by


the Estates Regeneration Advisory Panel, co- chaired by Barwell and Lord Heseltine, who met six times during 2016 to help develop the Estate Regeneration National Strategy.


Speed up


After successful engagement with local communities, the money will be used to speed up regeneration schemes in their early stages by tackling problems that hold up projects and


ousing estates across the country are to benefit from a £32m investment project to kick-start their regeneration


give local authorities access to skills to ensure high-quality regeneration. The loan fund is designed to cover costs such


as land assembly, leaseholder buy-outs, re- housing costs, demolition, and preparatory construction works. The biggest cash award goes to Haringey


Council in north London, which will receive more than £2m towards two schemes. Other major winners of more than £1m each are Clarion Housing Group for three estates in Merton, Gloucester City Homes for the Matson and Podsmead project, and Bristol City Council for the Lockleaze Estate. In Birmingham, the money will be used to


support discussions with local communities and ensure the Meadway regeneration creates a place local residents are proud of. Down the M1 in Milton Keynes, it will be used


to kick start the regeneration of seven estates to provide thousands of new homes.


“Landlords who rip-off and endanger their tenants should never be allowed to operate. We welcome the new powers, which will


enable us to ban the worst landlords and prevent them from exploiting vulnerable families and individuals anywhere in England.” He added: “It is a sad reality that every


week, our private sector housing team unearths yet further examples of housing crime perpetuated against vulnerable tenants. This makes it even more crucial that the Government urgently commits to renew our licensing scheme.”


Strong track record


Since the launch of its borough-wide licensing scheme in 2013, Newham Council claims to have made approximately 70 per cent of landlord prosecutions in London, with 1,072 successful prosecutions. It has also issued 415 cautions, reclaimed nearly £2.5m in unpaid Council Tax and undertook more than 400 enforcement visits. The council is seeking to extend its


licensing system for another five years from January 2018 and has completed a consultation exercise, inviting comments on the proposed new licensing scheme in a bid to persuade Housing Minister Gavin Barwell of the case. Since 2015, a quarter of London councils


“Haringey Council will benefit from more than £2m while Clarion and Bristol City Council will receive over £1m”


14 | HMM May 2017 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


failed to carry out a single court action, while as many as a half of councils in the capital prosecuted fewer than 10 landlords for providing unsafe accommodation, according to London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon.


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