4th
Mar 2022
Nottingham’s media is buzzing around a story that its council’s highly controversial selective licensing scheme may soon be under investigation by external auditors.
The city council has over the years been a staunch and outspoken critic of PRS landlords.
One example of council’s ‘persistence’ was exposed when it came to light that the council had sent out 3,033 letters and 61 legal notices to PRS landlords between April 2020 and March 2021.
Another example of Nottingham council’s misguided and stupid actions when it dealing with PRS landlords occurred in 2018, when condemned for ‘blowing’ £95,000 of taxpayers’ money by taking a landlord to the Supreme Court which was subsequently thrown out of court.
Originally the council took the landlord to court regarding the size of two student bedrooms in his property which was ruled against. Rather than accepting the ruling, the council launched an appeal against the verdict to the Supreme which was once again unsuccessful and ended up costing the taxpayer £95,000.
True to form the council is once again incurring anger over its landlords as reported on the Notts TV News website, part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
It highlighted how Nottingham’s selective licensing scheme fees first introduced in 2018 has undergone huge rises over the past four years from £670 per property to the current £890.
Grant Thornton – the council’s external auditing company - has recently been issued with a landlord’s formal objection concerning the council’s 2019/20 accounts of the licensing scheme.
The website reports that a Grant Thornton representative spoke to councillors at an audit committee last week, saying: “It concerns the value for money of the scheme and the way it was managed. How much it costs? How much it has brought in terms of fees paid by the landlords?
Basically, whether it was a worthwhile exercise. That has been made as a formal objection to the accounts and that is something we do need to consider.”
Giles Inman of a Property Owners Group told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We know the council are going to the government in October to justify why they believe Selective Licensing should be renewed for another five years. We are considering forming a committee to draft our own submission on behalf of landlords – we are considering going against that renewal.
“The costs associated with complying with the licensing scheme translates into higher rents (for tenants). There is no question about it. You have utility bills going through the roof and huge strains on tenants paying gas and electricity to heat their homes. Landlords are trying to keep costs for the tenants as low as possible.”
Richard Merrick of PIMS, says: “Why don’t councils and the government understand that their constantly blatant attacks on PRS landlords will always affect the majority of tenants with higher rents and lower choices due to their policies and actions.”
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