Agenda item

Joint report of the Corporate Director for Development and Growth and the Corporate Director for Commercial and Operations

Lisa Ball, Strategic Planning and Performance Consultant, introduced the report detailing the proposal to introduce a selective licensing scheme for privately rented houses, for the purpose of gaining the views of the Committee as part of the consultation, which runs from January to March 2017.

Lisa presented the Committee with the following information:

(a)  it is a key priority to introduce a city wide selective licensing scheme to improve the private rented sector;

(b)  there are strict criteria to comply with and conditions needed for a scheme to be implemented, and now that a firm proposal has been developed, consultation is taking place before the scheme is submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for approval later in the year;

(c)  the Housing Act 2004 introduced mandatory and discretionary licensing. Mandatory licensing covers large houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), and discretionary licensing covers additional licensing of smaller HMOs, and selective licensing. An additional licensing scheme for smaller HMOs was adopted in January 2014 and covers 3,000 properties. The proposal for the selective licensing scheme will potentially cover the majority of the remainder of the private rented sector not covered by the other schemes;

(d)  the aim of selective licensing is to:

·  help tackle problems identified in the private rented sector such as anti-social behaviour, crime, deprivation and poor property conditions;

·  improve living conditions for tenants and the surrounding community;

·  drive up standards amongst landlords and tackle rogue landlords;

·  work with landlords and tenants to provide positive advice and assistance;

(e)  if the selective licensing proposal is successful, it will apply to the vast majority of Nottingham’s 43,000 private rented sector properties, and will run in parallel with the existing additional licensing scheme which covers HMOs or shared properties;

(f)  large parts of the area have a high proportion of private rented sector properties and meet the criteria;

(g)  in Sherwood the majority of the ward has a high proportion of private rented sector housing and meets one of more of the criteria, with the biggest problem being poor property conditions;

(h)  inBerridge all of the ward has a high proportion of private rented sector housing and meets one or more of the criteria.

In response to questions from the Committee, Lisa provided the following additional information:

(i)  Liverpool and Newham have similar schemes, but they were introduced before the changes to legislation so didn’t need DCLG approval. Colleagues from the City Council are currently working with them to understand the lessons learnt and look at the evidence of changes as a result of the scheme;

(j)  insulation levels are taken into account when assessing property conditions as there are links between health and housing conditions that need to be improved;

(k)  the model for the scheme has been developed to enable licences to be issued quickly, so the proposal is for 50% of properties to be inspected within the first year based on a desk top risk assessment;

(l)  if properties are not up to the expected standard then the landlord will generally be give 3 months to make the necessary improvements, and if they’re not achieved then a prohibition notice can be issued.

RESOLVED to

(1)  note the contents of the report;

(2)  request that the views of the Committee expressed above are taken into account in the consultation process;

(3)  ask partners to actively contribute to the consultation process.