A council is trying to ‘encourage’ private landlords to lease their properties for up to 20 years and in doing so will be guaranteed monthly rental income and a promised full management service for the agreed term. 

The Welsh Government’s funded ‘Leasing Scheme Wales’ is being launched this week and managed by Pembrokeshire county council.

The council states it wants to be able to lease “affordable and good quality homes” in the private rented sector for vulnerable people who are facing homelessness and on low incomes.

The scheme will help tenants to access longer term settled accommodation for up to 20 years, however rents will be in line with local housing allowance levels “to ensure affordability to tenants on low incomes and/or benefits.”

The council will only take on properties for the scheme which meet a specific standard, however it does confirm it is willing to provide financial support to help landlords  to upgrade their properties to meet the council’s required standards.

A spokeswoman for the council says: “We want our tenants to be happy, healthy and settled and we will support them to maintain their tenancy by directing them to sources of help if they need them.”

The spokeswoman also claims the council’s scheme will give landlords peace of mind and says: “Landlords will not have to worry about the condition of their properties after a tenancy as we will be responsible for the maintenance of the property and will return it to the landlord in the same condition as it was before the tenancy started. We will also be responsible for all the void work - the work done on properties in between tenancies.”

The council will be offering landlord leases of five up to 20 years with guaranteed monthly rental payments for the agreed lease period at the local housing allowance level.

The council is able to offer landlords, when necessary, a grant of up to £5,000 to upgrade the EPC rating of a property to a level C and there is extra grant funding of as much as £25,000 for empty properties.