Sir Robin Wales The Mayor Newham, is fuming that Eric Pickles has awarded himself with the power to stop  any local authority private landlord licensing schemes, if he feels they are unjust.

Newham was the first local authority in England, two years ago, to implement a borough-wide licensing scheme for the private landlords and the council has licensed 100% of landlords' rental properties.

With the introduction of the scheme in 2013 it was only a comparative short moment in time, before the government decided to “herald” its proposals aiming to restrict councils of being able to launch similar schemes, without going through a formal and proper consultation process.

 

This year on April1st, it was made compulsory for any council planning to introduce a licensing scheme for more  than 20% of local privately rented accommodation or geographical area, that they must gain permission from Eric Pickles.

Newham council’s scheme was started in 2013 to cut down on anti-social behaviour, control housing standards and to stamp out the relative few cases of “sardine” accommodation. Since then more than 35,000 properties within the borough have been licensed.

The Council claims that the scheme has seen them banning 25 landlords – who had 150 properties – who could or would not follow the standards of their “fit and proper” housing. The landlords are still able to rent out properties; however they are only able to do this by contracting reputable letting agents or property managers, on their behalf.

They also state that more than 1,000 landlords have been given special 12 month licences as the council felt that they were in danger of breaching the housing standards. The council has held 472 successful prosecutions against private landlords and have handed out fines of up to £30,000.

Within the borough 40% of Newham’s homes are privately rented, and back in February 2010, the council asked the Secretary of State for permission to start a landlord licensing scheme in a single ward.

The three year pilot scheme was apparently responsible for reducing anti-social behaviour in the ward by 64%, during this period the PRS experienced a massive upsurge.  The scheme for the rental sector was then introduced borough wide.

Highly critical of the government's new mandate, Sir Robin Wales said: “These overly bureaucratic measures from the government will strangle councils’ ability to tailor licensing schemes to local needs.

"Local authorities and residents are in the best position to determine whether a property licensing scheme is needed for their area, not Whitehall. Strong evidence is already required to introduce borough-wide licensing so this is redundant legislation, creating more hoops for local authorities to jump through.

“Good landlords have nothing to fear from private rented sector licensing and we have the support of many local landlords and agents. Our focus has always been ensuring tenants are living in safe conditions that they are secure in their legal rights and the borough’s streets are not blighted with anti-social behaviour.

"The housing minister wants to introduce this restriction with no formal consultation. I have written to him setting out my concerns, asking that these plans are stopped and a consultation opened to allow interested parties to contribute their views.”