Newham Borough Council is the first local authority in the UK to bring in a borough-wide private landlord licence scheme in an effort to reduce the numbers of unscrupulous landlords flouting the law and making tenants’ lives a misery.
“We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing,” says Mayor Sir Robin Wales of Newham Council, although many industry experts, including the NLA, are not convinced the scheme has any great merit.
The landlord licence scheme in Newham is scheduled to begin on 1st January 2013 and will require private landlords to pay a flat fee of £500 in return for a five-year licence. However, if landlords wish to sign up for the scheme early (before the start date), they will be entitled to receive a one-off discount of £150, thus reducing the fee to £350 for five years.
The private landlord licence scheme was first piloted in the Little Ilford Neighbourhood Improvement Zone of Newham Borough Council and several bad landlords were subsequently targeted for enforcement notices. As a result of the successful pilot scheme, Newham has now decided to roll out the landlord licence to the whole of the East London borough and more than 35,000 private landlords with a portfolio of private rented accommodation, including buy to let properties and houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) will be affected by the changes.
