Industry News
Extra funds to help councils crack down on criminal landlords
current financial year. The money is to support projects which take
T
effective and targeted action against criminal landlords, support good landlords in fulfilling their responsibilities and empower tenants to make good use of their rights. Local authorities had until 1 December to submit their bids and the successful schemes need to spend their allocation by 31 March 2020. Ministers said they want to further encourage
new or targeted short-term initiatives which stimulate new thinking and further encourage innovative and targeted approaches in the private rented sector, enabling the majority of good landlords to continue to provide safe and decent homes for their tenants. Richard Lambert, CEO of the National Landlords
Association, said: "We welcome the news that more funding will be made available for councils in England to crack down on landlords who break the law and provide inadequate services to tenants. "That being said, the offer of £3.8 million to be
spread across around 100 of the 343 local authorities is simply not enough. Local authorities need far more substantial and consistent support and funding to be able to enforce properly in the PRS and rid the sector of the criminals operating within it.” Last year some £2.4 million was shared among
56 projects and supported work in 100 councils which together are home to over a million households living in the private rented sector.
It helped the councils to uncover hundreds of poor-quality homes. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “It’s
unacceptable that a small minority of unscrupulous landlords appear to be breaking the law and providing homes which fall short of the standards that tenants rightly expect. “This funding helps councils to capitalise on
their strengthened powers, last year being used to train hundreds of inspection officers and create new technologies to make sure inspectors spend their time taking action to improve the sector, not stuck behind a desk.” Last year, Burnley received over £60,000 to carry
out proactive inspections of rented homes in the area, allowing them to reach vulnerable tenants who are less likely to report a problem to their council. The council found and fixed over 100 hazards
across the properties they inspected. In some cases the funding helped tenants who were trapped in properties which posted a serious risk to their safety – meaning they could be rehoused in quality accommodation. MHCLG expects councils to share best practice
of enforcement action and examples of inventive approaches that can be adopted in councils nationwide to drive quality and stamp out bad landlords.
he Government has made an additional £3.8 million available for councils to tackle criminal landlords in the remainder of the
Regulations affecting private landlords up by a third
The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32 per cent since 2010 according to new analysis undertaken by a leading landlords organisation. The Residential Landlords Association claims the
total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-led coalition government first came to power. The RLA is warning the increase in legislation
has not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and many councils are failing to properly use the powers they already have. Previous research by the RLA found that in 2017/18, two thirds of councils had not commenced any prosecutions against private
landlords. In the same year, 89 per cent of councils told the RLA they had not used new powers to issues Civil Penalties of up to £30,000 against private landlords for a range of offences. Over half, 53 per cent, did not have a policy in place to properly use the power. Against a rising tide of regulation and poor levels
of enforcement the RLA called on all political parties to commit to improving enforcement of the powers already available rather than introduce new legislation which councils will be unable to use to root out the crooks. In its manifesto for the General Election the RLA
proposed scrapping licensing schemes which serve only to penalise good landlords while enabling the criminals to operate under the radar. Instead, councils should use the wide range of
18 | HMM December/January 2020 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
data already available to them, including council tax, benefits, tenancy deposit and electoral roll information to identify landlords. This needs to be backed up by central government providing a multi-year funding settlement to properly resource enforcement. David Smith, policy director for the RLA said:
“Removing criminal landlords from the sector will only be achieved if councils have the resources and the will to properly use the wide range of powers they already have. “Piling more regulations onto the sector which
will continue not to be properly enforced is meaningless and serves only to put off good landlords from providing the homes to rent we need. It is time for smarter enforcement, not more regulation.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
