Industry News


National register of private landlords proposed


rental market, but the idea was immediately attacked by organisations representing landlords. Both the National Landlords Association and the


A


Residential Landlords Association say the review demonstrated an unwillingness to listen to landlords, while its proposals are unlikely to drive rogue landlords out of business. The Housing Ministry commissioned a


consultant-led inquiry into selective licensing schemes last year. These have been available for councils to use since the Housing Act 2004 and were designed to tackle concerns over anti-social behaviour and low housing demand. The experts’ 228-page report was released in late June. The report finds that selective licensing is an


effective tool when implemented properly, and identifies a range of areas where the operation or implementation of selective licensing schemes could be improved. The RLA fears the proposals will push up costs


and increase red tape for those landlords providing good quality homes to rent, while criminal landlords providing sub-standard or dangerous homes will simply ignore the requirement and continue to operate below the radar. The RLA objects to selective licensing


schemes on the basis they offer no guarantees when it comes to the quality of homes, with no property inspections required as part of the licensing requirement. RLA research has shown there is no clear link between a council operating a licensing scheme for landlords and levels of enforcement.


ALTERNATIVE SCHEMES As an alternative to selective licensing, the RLA supports a system of self-regulation for landlords, whereby compliant landlords join a co-regulation scheme which deals with standards and complaints


national register of private landlords has been proposed by independent experts who reviewed selective licensing in the


in the first instance, while those outside the scheme remain under the scope of local authority enforcement. Meanwhile Richard Lambert, chief executive of


the NLA said: “Far too often we see local authorities failing to live up to their side of selective licensing. It’s shameful that the Review has ignored our call for regular reporting against schemes’ published objectives, which would be easy to implement and would actually hold councils to account. “The majority of selective licensing schemes are


introduced without any thought having been given to their implementation, funding and enforcement, leading to good landlords paying for effectively nothing. For the most part, selective licensing has failed to root out the bad landlords and the recommendations in the report will do very little to change that. “The suggestion to introduce a national registration of landlords and a property MOT


would be a viable alternative to selective licensing, but would need to be well thought out and proportionate to avoid an unnecessary burden on good landlords.” The NLA does support the proposal for


standardised requirements for property conditions, which local authorities can enforce against. However, the recommendations fail to include anything to close the loopholes which currently allow those who fail the ‘fit and proper’ person test to continue operating in other areas or through a letting agent. Last year the Minister for the PRS, Heather


Wheeler said: “The Government does not support a mandatory register of private landlords. The majority of landlords provide decent and well managed accommodation and requiring those landlords to sign up to a national register would introduce an unnecessary and costly additional layer of bureaucracy.”


Landlords urged to push ahead with building safety


A top civil servant has urged social landlords to push ahead with works to improve the safety of tenants’ homes rather than waiting for the Government to legislate on changes. With leaders of housing associations and


stock holding councils waiting for the formal outcomes of the Hackitt Review changes (expected in the Autumn), the deputy director of building safety at the Ministry of Housing said


they should proceed with plans for delivering greater safety. Izzy Connell was speaking at the Chartered


Institute of Housing’s annual conference alongside senior sector figures, who said landlords could act now on the basis of the consultation proposals. Ms Connell said: “I totally echo the view that


others have put forward that if you can do this now, thinking about your buildings for all the other


14 | HMM August/September 2019 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


reasons that you have to, then it’s the right thing to do – it just makes you so much better placed as and when this legislation comes in.” A consultation exercise is underway until


31 July on Government plans for implementing recommendations from the Hackitt Review of fire safety and building regulations. This includes creating ‘dutyholders’, to be responsible for a building’s safety at different points in its lifetime and the introduction of a regulator for building safety. The proposals will apply to buildings higher than


18 metres, rather than 30 metres, as recommended by Dame Judith.


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