Starting this week, councils in England can introduce selective licensing schemes independently without needing approval from the Secretary of State.

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This change follows an announcement from Housing Secretary Angela Rayner's department last week.

Despite the increased powers councils are still required to undergo the current mandatory 10-week public consultation period before implementing any new schemes, and must provide regular updates on their progress to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

The government asserts that the simplified licensing system is designed to enhance housing standards. However, a leading lettings expert suggests there's another motive behind the change to generate extra revenue for councils.

The lettings expert, says: “Any council can launch any selective licensing scheme they want with no need to get approval from the Secretary of State. All they have to do is one of their meaningless and rigged ‘consultations’ with almost always a totally unrepresentative sample of stakeholders, almost zero input from landlords or tenants and questions that don’t even hide the fact they are designed to get the answers the local authority needs to do what it intends to do anyway regardless of the opinions of stakeholders.

“The recent selective licensing ‘consultation’ by Leeds City Council was one of the worst examples with leading consultation questions this firm has ever seen.

“So, far from the private rented sector heading towards the national landlord database as a simple and workable alternative to selective licensing, we now are on the starting blocks for every council to require every rental property to be licensed under what will become 340-odd councils with 300-odd different licensing schemes.

“All with the covert aim of being able to criminally prosecute and fine landlords for breach of licence conditions – many of which in this firm’s experience constitute double jeopardy with exiting legislation, entrapment and councils offloading their legal responsibility for anti-social behaviour (ASB) onto landlords with no ASB skills or training and making landlords criminally responsible ASB in the entire area around their rental properties!

“Breach of a selective licence condition is a criminal offence with unlimited fines in the courts or councils can issue a civil penalty fine of up to £30,000 and keep the money for the cash-strapped council’s coffers.

“Also, that £30,000 fine is rising to £40,000 (and a minimum of £7,000) for most Housing Act offences under the Renters’ Rights Bill’s heavily upgraded enforcement provisions.”

He adds: “It looks clearly like the councils will use this power to introduce a scheme to boost revenue collection from licence fees and fines which all landlords and, ultimately, tenants, must pay. Selective licencing schemes in England typically cost around £1,000 (£200/year) compared to the far better scheme in Jersey that is only £30/year.