Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report setting out the ambition to utilise the enabling Housing legislation for a Selective Licensing scheme to come into being to help improve the Private Rented Sector in Leicester.  The Commission is recommended to consider the report and survey and to provide comments for the potential development of a scheme.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report setting out the aim to use enabling Housing legislation for a Selective Licensing Scheme to help improve the Private Rented Sector in Leicester.

The Head of Regulatory Service and the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services introduced the report, noting that:

·           Anyone letting property privately in the designated areas would be required to register with the Council;

·           It was hoped, (subject to a full and appropriate consultation), that a selective licensing area could be in operation towards the end of 2020.  Full Council would be required to give final approval to the adoption of these proposals;

·           To be able to introduce selective licensing, a need for it had to be shown.  Views currently were being sought on the idea and potential areas that could be involved, whilst noting that further consultation work and other evidence gathering would take place;

·           The areas currently identified as high density for the purpose of selective licensing, and therefore potentially to be included in the Scheme, had been determined using 2011 census data; and

·           Work being undertaken at the moment was shaping the Scheme, so the next stage would include speaking to partners, such as Ward Councillors, the emergency services and landlords for more specific information.  The Scheme had to be problem-led, so the Council needed to identify what problems existed and what was causing them.

Members welcomed the proposal and endorsed the areas identified as possible locations for the introduction of the Scheme.

It was asked whether it would be possible to introduce a Scheme any earlier than September 2020.  In reply, the Head of Regulatory Service explained that work therefore was started on a selective Scheme, as that could be brought in sooner than a city-wide one.  A city-wide Scheme needed government approval, but the Council could introduce one for 20% or less of the municipal area or 20% or less of the size of the Private Rented Sector without such approval.  However, although indications previously had been received from the government that city-wide Schemes possibly were not favoured, as they were not felt to be selective, it now appeared that some city-wide Schemes were being approved, such as one in Nottingham. 

The target date for a decision by full Council on selective licensing was May 2020.  Once this decision had been taken, a three-month statutory standstill applied to the Scheme, while a 10-week consultation was undertaken.  This would achieve the start date of towards the end of 2020.  If the process was not followed correctly, there was a danger that the Council could be subject to judicial review of the process used, as had happened to other authorities.  It therefore was felt that the time scales proposed were realistic and achievable.

It was noted that the amount of private sector housing in the wards identified for the Scheme totalled more than 20% of the size of the city’s Private Rented Sector.  More specific proposals would be drawn up based on issues identified through research currently being undertaken, so that at the final stage of the Scheme streets to be included or omitted were identified.  It therefore was suggested that the current on-line consultation should ask what parts of wards should be included, rather than which whole wards, but it was noted that this was an informal survey, so was not the full one, which was still to come.

Some concern was expressed that the licence fees would not cover the cost of the Scheme.  In reply, the Head of Regulatory Service advised the Commission that the Scheme had to be self-financing, so decisions would have to be made about what would be covered, (for example, whether the cost of inspections would be included).

In response to a concern that the Scheme as proposed appeared to be bureaucratic, the Head of Regulatory Service noted that there was a need to ensure that what was included and asked of landlords met the objectives of the Scheme.  Care therefore was being taken to ensure that things of no or little value to the Scheme were not included.  External consultation would provide external challenge on this.  It therefore was too early for things such as Key Performance Indicators to have been established.

Councillor Connelly, Assistant City Mayor with responsibility for Housing, thanked the Commission for inviting him to participate in the scrutiny of this item and expressed the hope that the Scheme would receive sufficient support to enable it to be implemented.

AGREED:

That the proposals for a Selective Licensing Scheme under the Housing Act 2004 be endorsed, subject to the comments recorded above and in particular the introduction of appropriate Key Performance Indicators and officers making efforts to avoid the Scheme becoming overly bureaucratic.