Minutes:
At this point in the meeting the Mayor declared a pecuniary interest and withdrew from the meeting.
The Deputy Mayor assumed the Chair and proceeded with the meeting.
The Executive Member for Regeneration submitted a report for Executive’s consideration.
An Executive decision was made on 18th October 2022 to commence consultation on the designation of a Selective Landlord Licensing Scheme in Newport ward (known as Newport 2 area). The report set out the rationale for commencing consultation and provided full details on how this consultation would be undertaken.
The purpose of the report was to present and consider the outcome of the ten week consultation and to recommend that the area of Newport shown in Appendix A was designated for Selective Landlord Licensing.
The Housing Act 2004, gave local authorities powers to introduce Selective Landlord Licensing (over a five year period) for privately rented properties in areas experiencing low housing demand, significant and persistent anti-social behaviour or high levels of poor housing conditions, deprivation or crime. The purpose of such a scheme was to improve standards of property management in the private rented sector, and when combined with other measures, leading to improved physical, social and economic conditions.
Under the Housing Act 2004 Part 3 (Selective Licensing of other Residential Accommodation) all private landlords operating within the designated area were required to pay a fee and obtain a licence from the Council for each rented property. The conditions of the licence ensure that the property is managed effectively, and licence holders had to demonstrate their compliance. The fees were ring fenced to fund the staffing resources for the delivery of the scheme.
OPTIONS
Do not designate and continue with the existing
arrangements.
Carry on with the existing arrangement using the current
resources available without a dedicated Selective Licensing team. This would have meant utilising current
staffing and regulatory roles and managing the area through the existing
arrangements. Without a dedicated SLL
team there would have been no legal controls to hold landlords accountable for
their tenant and property management, there would be no dedicated staffing
resource for the area to carry out mandatory tenancy referencing, pro-active
housing standards inspections, or to respond to the antisocial behaviour. There would have been a continued imbalance
in service delivery between the two halves of the ward.
Do not designate the area and carry out alternative
interventions.
Alternatives to Selective Licensing were considered in
other wards prior to the designation of the North Ormesby and Newport Selective
Licensing areas. These included voluntary registration and the use of
traditional enforcement tools. These would have required significant additional
investment by the Council to have achieved any sustainable change across the
area.
Alternative interventions would have still required a
need to ensure that proactive assessment of properties and an increased focus
on renting and management practices was sustained. While Selective Landlord Licensing was not
intended to be indefinite, a shift to an alternative non-regulatory approach or
only relying on traditional reactive enforcement tools was not considered appropriate
to sustain or progress the improvements achieved.
Traditional interventions did not provide the level of
engagement with landlords necessary for the desired improvements. Landlord take up of previous accreditation schemes had been
very low, they tended to only engage with responsible landlords who saw a value
in being part of a scheme. An example of a non-mandatory scheme was the
Stockton Pluss model which was run by landlords. Stockton Council figures showed that they had
80 members for this scheme with 539 properties and not all landlords who
opposed their SLL scheme joined the accredited scheme.
Short term proactive enforcement projects can have an
impact but were not sustainable without significant investment from existing
revenue budgets or grant funding.
In considering the responses received to the consultation
it was maintained that the recommended action to designate the Selective
Landlord Licensing Scheme in Newport 2 was the most appropriate course. The area met the legal criteria for the
designation of a Selective Landlord Licensing Scheme which was the most
effective solution to improving management standards in the private rented
sector.
ORDERED
That the Executive consider the results of the consultation
and the statutory tests referred to in the report and appendices and approve
the designation of Selective Landlord Licensing within the proposed area of
Newport ward (Appendix A).
REASONS
The SLL schemes in both North Ormesby and Newport 1 area
had resulted in improvements in the living and environmental conditions for
those living in the area and contributed to reductions in antisocial behaviour.
The designation of the remaining area of the Newport ward for Selective
Landlord Licensing scheme would continue to ensure that property standards were
maintained, anti-social behaviour issues related to tenants were reduced and
managed and that landlords were held accountable for the costs of both
licensing and the property management improvements. The existing SLL
designations were self-financing and, in line with the recommended changes to
the scheme, the new designation would work in the same way.
The designation would require all privately rented
properties within the identified boundaries, subject to statutory exemptions,
to apply to be licensed for up to five years and comply with the licence
conditions.
The proposed fee of £836 enabled the Council to ensure
the scheme was self-financing, it was calculated on the staffing requirements
for the administration and regulation of the selective landlord licensing
scheme.
The boundary for the SLL scheme was to ensure complete
coverage of the area in relation to improved housing standards, environmental
conditions and reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour.
Supporting documents: