editor posted on October 13, 2011 01:43
Ministers have been asked to reconsider regulating private residential landlords.
Labour MP Chris Williamson accused the housing minister in Parliament of failing in his responsibilities and allowing slum landlords to flourish.
But CLG minister Andrew Stunell made it clear that instead of regulating landlords, local councils could choose to introduce their own selective licensing schemes. He insisted these were the way forward, although anecdotally, they have proved both expensive and unpopular with landlords.
Williamson, who represents Derby North, said: “With more than one million people living in sub-standard privately rented accommodation, and with massive front-loaded cuts to council budgets making it harder to tackle slum landlords, the Housing and Local Government Minister is clearly failing in his responsibilities.
“However, as Henry Ford once said: ‘Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.’
“Will the Minister therefore adopt a more intelligent approach and abandon his laissez-faire attitude to regulation, which is creating a charter for slum landlords, by implementing the light-touch licensing system recommended by the Rugg Review, adopted by Labour and welcomed by the National Landlords Association and the Association of Residential Lettings Agents?”
The Rugg Review recommended compulsory licensing of all letting agents plus a mandatory register of all private landlords.
Stunell had earlier told another Labour MP, Graham Jones, who represents Hyndburn in Lancashire, where the local council’s bid to introduce selective licensing was overturned as being unlawful by a collective of local landlords, that the Government has not carried out any assessment of the effectiveness of selective licensing.
Stunell said that local authorities would be encouraged instead to carry out their own reviews.
Jones said: “The main problem with selective licensing, of course, is that it does not deal with stock condition, and we see many properties in selective licensing areas that are squalid. Can the Minister assure local communities that the Government will allow councils to include the most recent decent homes standard as a licence condition?”
Stunell replied: “Licensing conditions are matters for local authorities when they draw up their proposals.”
Rob Wellstead said: “It remains disappointing that successive Governments refuse to consider the positive benefits of licensing lettings agents. With the private rental sector having grown to around 17% of all home occupancy in the UK, there has been a corresponding growth in unprofessional and, in some cases, downright crooked, agents seeking to capitalise at landlords and tenants expense.
At Lenwell we are members of all of the relevant professional bodies and abide by their strict codes of conduct. We urge landlords and tenants to only deal with professional agents.”