17th
Mar 2019
According to an industry association's research, councils in England have drastically reduced their level of spending in their efforts to tackle rogue landlords and are far lower than in 2009-2010.
pixabay.com
The research shows that during 2009-2010 local authorities spent £44.5 million to ensure housing standards were improved and the association found from government figures that this has fallen to £33.5 million in 2017-2018.
There are now 150 Acts of Parliament that have more than 400 regulations for the private rented sector and the association is stating councils should be 'upping their game' to ensure the laws are properly enforced. They should also be given substantially more funding to rid the sector of 'rogue landlords'.
The government has just announced an additional £2 million for councils is available to take on unscrupulous landlords. However the association says this is not nearly enough to give councils the confidence to strategically plan long term rogue activity 'wipeout'.
Last year the government gave councils greater powers against criminal landlords and the opportunity to impose higher penalties which they could keep to continue their fight against 'rogues'. The association feels that in theory the powers will help councils, but they simply do not have the necessary resources or funding to put structures and operations into place, to generate extra income accrued from higher fines through enforced actions.
The association is urging the government to provide extra funding for councils over the next few years so they can 'kick start' enforcement operations.
A spokesperson for the association, said: “Criminal landlords undermine the reputation of the decent majority, cause tenants to suffer and have no place in the sector.
“Local authorities must have the funds they need to properly enforce the wide range of powers they already have to tackle sub-standard housing and criminal behaviour. Our analysis shows that for all the warm words, councils are in desperate need of new funding to ensure this happens.
“The government should use the Spending Review to address this as a matter of urgency.”
News Archive »