27th
Jan 2023
A council has scrapped a rental accreditation scheme because it “didn’t work.”
It attracted only good landlords and therefore did not improve housing standards in properties owned by less conscientious landlords.
The Stoke-on-Trent Live news website reports that Carl Edwards, cabinet member for housing and environment, a fully paid up member of the scheme himself, told the council’s scrutiny committee members axing the service will save £34,000 a year and reassured them that tenants would not lose out.
Edwards said: "Basically this is an advice service for private landlords. When this was set up, I guess the members of both authorities thought it would be a good idea.
"But things have changed over the years. All the information that the accreditation scheme hands out to its members is freely available online, and so membership has dropped in recent years.
"Since Covid, no in-person meetings have taken place. Only good landlords sign up to the scheme. It's the bad ones we need to get after, and the housing team at the city council, and the borough council, already have powers to go after bad landlords. That's where we should be concentrating our efforts."
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