A recent newspaper’s Freedom of Information request has found that local councils have massively ignored or bothered with the government’s rogue agent and landlords banned list.

Since the list’s introduction in April 2018 there has only been a paltry 56 agents and landlords ‘named and shamed’, which shows one of two things – councils cannot be bothered, or there are only a few ‘rogues’ operating in the PRS.

Data from the somewhat ‘grandly’ titled Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities submitted to the Metro newspaper, reveals during 2018 – 2020 there was an average of just  25 entries registered in the ‘rogues gallery’, and a pathetic number of local councils – 23 – out of the 333 authorities bothering to upload names.

Top of the list of participants was Camden with five, closely followed up by Liverpool with four and then Salford and Telford and Wrekin ‘neck and neck’ with three apiece.

Prior to Covid a consultation was held by ministers on whether the register’s scope should be extended to include agents and landlords charging excessive fees, those who had failed to register with a redress scheme and those failing to resolve pest infestations.

The consultation was closed in October 2019 and so far the government has failed to respond to its findings.

But of course Shelter has tweeted its thoughts on the subject courtesy of its C.E. Polly Neate: “It’s far too easy for landlords to get away with renting out homes that aren’t fit to live in, because right now they have all the power. That’s why government’s Renters Reform Bill is so important  and must not be a casualty of recent political upheaval.”