Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal.]

The report will be seeking approval to undertake public consultation in respects to a proposed property licensing scheme for privately rented homes within a designated area of the borough.

Clerk’s note – The Leader re – joined the meeting and chaired the reminder of the  agenda items.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal introduced the report which outlined the proposed landlord licensing scheme, containing the regulatory framework to support the many good landlords in Haringey, whilst also providing the powers for officers to tackle the rogue landlords who do not comply. The scheme will also enable the Council to know who owns and manages these properties through the issuing of licenses to operate.

This report further sought a decision from Cabinet to carry out statutory public consultation exercise in relation to the designation of two areas within the borough, as set out in paragraphs 1.6 and 1.7 of the attached report which will be subject to Selective Property Licensing.

In response to questions from Councillor Connor, the following was noted:

• It was not currently possible to have a borough wide scheme with all wards included. The external advice provided, in the early stages of progressing this policy, was that the government criteria for a borough wide scheme was unlikely to be met. In relation to deciding the wards areas which would include the license, it was noted that deprivation indices had been included in the proposed selective scheme proposal. There were also still identified existing tools within enforcement programme to deal with private properties located outside the scheme.

• If the consultation result indicated a need to extend the scheme then this could still be considered post consultation. The final decision maker on the scheme was the secretary of state as outlined in the report.

• With regards to the potential of the £600 fee being passed on from landlords to tenants, this was not considered to be a significant issue. If this situation were to occur, it was unlikely to be a much higher additional cost as the £600 fee was paid every 5 years .Also the availability of a license would be providing the tenant with the assurance of good accommodation which is well managed.

• The Housing Improvement Team had compiled significant data on the private rented sector, working with an experienced external company and would be able to use this information to contact landlords that may not have accessed a license.

RESOLVED

1. To authorise the Director for Environment and Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal, to finalise and commence (when appropriate – see 1.4) statutory consultation on a proposal to designate two areas within the borough for selective licensing as described at 6.4 and Appendices 1 & 2 together with:

·                     The proposed fees and charges in Appendix 5

·                     The proposed Standard Licensing Conditions in Appendix 4.

2. To note that following the consultation a further report will be presented to cabinet for final decision before making, a referral to Secretary of State for approval.

Reasons for decision

The private housing market is a growing sector which is reflected within Haringey. Recent local research has identified that the Private Rented Sector (PRS) in Haringey has grown by 36% since the census in 2011. This market offers a housing need that Haringey values and wants to see as strong, healthy and vibrant. Our aim is for a better private rented sector that offers security, stability and decency for its tenants.

We wish to ensure that the sector is encouraged to meet, in a professional way and with decent quality accommodation, the demands placed upon it by the wide range of tenants that it services.

As outlined in paragraphs 6.6, the impact of increased private renting in Haringey, has been significant. Anti-social behaviour, environmental crime, poor property condition and transient tenancies are outcomes which relate to a lack of property and tenant management. The result of this is a high demand on certain services within the Council.

Selective licensing would allow the local authority to regulate landlords to manage this sector more effectively. There are a number of factors through which selective licensing helps to achieve effective change:

• It focuses resources on areas of concern whilst simultaneously generating revenue to contribute to the costs involved.

• It provides clearly defined offences (licensed/unlicensed) which simplifies enforcement - and where a landlord is intentionally operating without a licence it is highly likely the inspection process will uncover further offences.

• There is no 24-hour notice requirement for access before an inspection for licensing purposes. This is particularly important where criminal (‘rogue’) landlords are present.

• The proactive inspection approach frequently brings other problems to light.

• Licensing provides a clear driver for effective engagement between landlords and local authorities and drives up landlord awareness of their responsibilities.

• The pre-designation process focuses local authority minds on the development of clear, transparent and robust enforcement practices.

• Selective licensing encourages the development of effective intelligence gathering mechanisms to support compliance by identifying unlicensed properties and then targeting those problematic properties.

• Promotion of joint working within the authority and other agencies - fire and rescue service, police, border control/immigration, social services, HMRC etc.;

• Selective Licensing applications require local authorities to first demonstrate the evidence for their concerns as well as look at alternative approaches and consult widely.

New data analysis on our private rented sector has been undertaken using property intelligence held by the Council and other agencies to profile our private housing sector. This has enabled us to further demonstrate the evidence which supports this intelligence. It also allowed us to consider the alternative options available and the outcome of using these within our current policy and procedures. A detailed report on this can be found in Appendix 3 (Evidence Base). A summary of the main evidence is detailed in paragraph 6.6.

The evidence supports our view that poor property conditions and anti-social behaviour are affecting the borough. Linked with the impact of deprivation as identified by the Government’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019 outcomes, we believe the data justifies a selective licensing scheme in the proposed designations within Haringey. The selective licensing tool can be used not only to improve poor quality accommodation but can also have a positive impact for people living within an area of high density privately rented accommodation. The delivery of positive outcomes against these targets will be the focus of this scheme.

Where the proposed designation covers either 20% of the total geographic area of the authority or 20% of the total privately rented stock (based on census figures), the designation requires approval by the Secretary of State.

Following this consultation exercise a final proposal will require Council Cabinet Approval and a separate report to MCHLG Secretary of State for their final authorisation.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing and continue with existing legal powers -

Existing powers available to the Council are largely reactive with officers responding to tenants’ complaints. It is believed that many tenants are reluctant to complain through fear of retaliatory eviction. Although current enforcement activity has been successful in remedying problems in individual dwellings, it is not felt to have raised the standard of private sector dwellings as a whole.

Voluntary Accreditation - Although the voluntary accreditation scheme is helpful in driving up standards, it relies on the willingness of landlords to sign up to it. It is likely therefore that conscientious landlords will continue to support the scheme, but that poor landlords will remain difficult to identify and will avoid joining the scheme, preferring instead to operate with the minimum regulation.