Data collected from councils around England and Wales suggests a steep fall in unscrupulous landlords facing court action, with more than 100 authorities saying that they have not prosecuted any landlords at all in half a decade.

Public Interest Lawyers collected information from English and Welsh councils, finding that over 100 of them did not take any landlords to court between 2019/20 and 2023/24.

There were 1,267 reported prosecutions across five years, working out at around one per 335 complaints the councils received from concerned tenants.

Some 252 councils, or 80% of the metropolitan, unitary, district, London or Welsh local authorities, responded within the time frame for a request. 115 (46%) confirmed that there were no prosecutions at all from April 2019 to March 2024.

A further 49 only sought court action against a solitary landlord in the five-year period, meaning just under two-thirds of councils did not undertake a court prosecution of multiple landlords.

As a number of authorities did not differentiate between civil penalties and court prosecutions in their response, that number may be higher.

This data was described by a group of prominent renters’ rights organisations as ‘worrying’, while another claimed that councils ‘lack both the resources and the political will’ to sufficiently deter landlords who fail to uphold their legal duties.

Since the introduction of The Housing and Planning Act 2016, local authorities have had the ability to issue a civil penalty of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution. Some councils have argued that these penalties, as well as formal warnings, have been sufficient in maintaining landlord compliance.

However, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) learned earlier this year that less than half of the fines issued against rogue landlords between 2021 and 2023 had been collected.

The Act also does not prevent councils from penalising rogue landlords through the courts. Leeds City Council confirmed that it carried out 99 criminal prosecutions in five years, including a whopping 43 in 2021/22.

Organisations protecting renters’ rights have urged the government to address issues facing renters with the Renters’ Rights Bill, which is in the process of being passed through Parliament.

The government’s proposals include the introduction of a Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman Service to monitor and act upon tenant complaints.

The Renters’ Reform Coalition is a group of 20 organisations which have joined to lobby for changes to legislation affecting the private rented sector.

They argue that the data collected by Public Interest Lawyers shows not an absence of willingness to prosecute landlords, but an ability to do so.

Reacting to Public Interest Lawyers’ report, Tom Darling, Director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “These are worrying findings.

“The key problem councils face here is ultimately a lack of resources, after years of rising costs and shrinking budgets.

“We’ve called on the government to provide local authorities – who will have the crucial role of enforcing the forthcoming Renters’ Rights Bill – with the additional funding and guidance they need to protect renters from rogue landlords.”

In London, two councils – those of Croydon and Redbridge – received more than 11,000 complaints each from tenants. The pair prosecuted nine and 22 landlords respectively.

Liverpool City Council had the most complaints over five years (19,439), followed by Croydon (11,762), Cardiff (11,509) and Redbridge (11,488).

Hull City Council, Birmingham City Council and Torbay Council had a combined total of more than 20,000 complaints without any taking a single rogue landlord to court.

Jae Vail, a spokesperson for the London Renters’ Union, said: “Tenants face an epidemic of hazardous housing in this country, but when we report safety concerns to our local authorities, our complaints often go ignored. Many councils lack both the resources and the political will to hold landlords accountable.

“The government must ensure local authorities have everything they need to side with renters and enforce our basic rights.

“Renters also need the legal right to pause rent payments in cases of serious disrepair so that we have more control over our own homes and don’t have to…depend solely on councils, many of which have failed us in the past.”

Across the 252 councils that responded to Public Interest Lawyers’ request for information, 438,523 complaints or ‘service requests’ regarding housing conditions or landlord behaviour were recorded across five years.

The English Housing Survey of 2022/23 claimed that almost 80% of renters considered making a complaint about their living conditions. Of the private renters who did share issues with their landlord, almost half said they were not at all happy with the response, while only 28% felt fully satisfied with how their complaint was handled.

Citizens Advice found in 2018 that tenants evicted under a Section 21 “no fault eviction” were five times more likely to have gone to their local authority to complain about their situation.

Currently, councils can only stave off a Section 21 eviction by issuing an improvement notice or emergency works notice to a landlord.

For some tenants, a culture of fear about complaining remains. Organisations including the Renters Reform Coalition hope that the Renters’ Rights Bill will put a permanent end to unlawful eviction, including so-called ‘revenge evictions’.

Darling added: “The government should make it easier for councils to crack down on illegal evictions, and further extend Rent Repayment Orders, putting money back in renters’ pockets and encouraging them to hold dodgy landlords to account.”

Awaab’s Law, which is designed to compel landlords to fix hazards that pose a danger to health in a strict time frame, has not yet been extended to the private sector. The Renters’ Rights Bill is set to do so once it is passed into law.

However, renters who suffer harm because of housing disrepair may be able to claim compensation.

Beverley Faulkner, Housing Disrepair specialist at legal firm JF Law, said: “All renters deserve to feel safe and secure in the property they pay to live in. Unfortunately, that does not always happen. The local authority being unable or unwilling to take action against a landlord could leave a renter feeling like justice has not been done.

“However, they could seek a fair outcome through a civil claim. If negligence by a landlord causes someone to suffer harm, for example through illness caused by damp and mould, they could make a personal injury claim.”