Big council looks at selective licencing to clamp down on bad landlords

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A major Midlands council is considering a selective licencing when its additional licencing scheme for HMOs finishes in 2025 as it seeks to answer critics who believe this type of property is damaging social cohesion in many areas.

The Cabinet committee of West Northamptonshire Council, which covers large swathes of the East Midlands, has asked its Head of Private Sector Housing Chris Stopford to gather evidence about the implementation of a selective licensing regime and make recommendations about its design and implementation.

While additional licencing only covers HMOs, selectively licencing usually covers all kinds of rented homes within an area and, in some cases, whole boroughs.

West Northamptonshire’s decision has been prompted by a review of the council’s approach to HMOs by a special working group that has finished its work after a year of investigation.

Criticism

The working group was established following recent public criticism of the detrimental effects of HMOs on local communities within West Northamptonshire and specifically its largest town, Northampton, and further condemnation over the increasing number of HMOs locally.

Members on the working group found that there are 1,164 licenced HMOs within the Northampton locality with three or more people from two or more households, of which 246 generated complaints from tenants about properties or landlord behaviour.

“Through the cross party Member Working Group we have had an opportunity to hear from a wide range of people and organisations to gain an understanding of the issues surrounding HMOs and the choices available to us,” says Councillor Adam Brown, Deputy Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Housing, Culture and Leisure.

“These proposals aim to further equip the Council to protect tenants, support landlords and make our neighbourhoods more pleasant for everyone.”

Other recommendations within the report include more staff to clamp down on rogue landlords and unlicenced properties, tackle rubbish generated by HMOs, and improve access to the council’s register of licenced properties.

The council’s Cabinet is due to vote on the working group‘s recommendations next Tuesday 11^th July at its Towcester HQ (main picture).

Read LandlordZONE editor's opinion piece on HMOs and 'nimbysm'. 

View Full Article: Big council looks at selective licencing to clamp down on bad landlords

Government housing policies ‘not working’ for landlords or tenants, MPs are told

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Tax increases on private landlords are reducing supply but not increasing owner occupation, making it difficult for the PRS to be commercially viable, according to a housing sector academic.

Giving evidence to the Pensions and Work Committee on benefit levels, Professor Kemp (main picture), professor of public policy at Blavatnik School of Government, said these tax increases were meant to help first-time buyers better compete with landlords but that home ownership had not risen by that much.

Supply had also dropped due to the fact landlords could get tenants to leave after six months, some were switching to Airbnbs, and the impact of rising interest rates, said Kemp.

Rents rising

“Where they can, some are increasing rent,” he explained. “It’s possible to do that as demand is going up because of the post-pandemic return to city, and also as undergraduates are returning to Britain and some domestic students are also coming back, and we now have a delayed entry into owner occupation.”

With Local Housing Allowance set in September 2019, if rents went up then the number of people able to afford private rented housing on benefit would drop, said Kemp.

“If, is as happening now, rents are rising rapidly – with Zoopla reporting that rents have risen for new lettings by 10% – then that puts the squeeze on people on housing benefit on what they can afford and as a result they then have to use part of the rest of their Universal Credit to cover the shortfall.”

Automatically uprating LHA would help the relationship between landlords and tenants, he added, while NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle (pictured) told MPs that landlords would welcome better access to the Universal Credit system and a reasonable dialogue to resolve issues.

“We shouldn’t look at landlords as being a problematic customer which is how a lot of landlords feel at the moment. They want to help their tenants.”

View Full Article: Government housing policies ‘not working’ for landlords or tenants, MPs are told

Another UK city wants powers to impose rent controls

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In a bid to combat its growing housing crisis, one UK city has launched an appeal for the government to hand over powers to impose rent controls.

The initiative is part of a broader strategy to help private tenants

View Full Article: Another UK city wants powers to impose rent controls