Liverpool City Council is urgently studying the small print of last week’s announcement that the Government is clamping down on selective licensing schemes.

Other councils planning to launch licensing schemes are also studying the implications in what looks to be a potential legal minefield.

Liverpool is set to be the first authority in the country to introduce blanket city-wide licensing of every single private rented property.

The scheme is due to be implemented on April 1 – the same day that the new curbs come into force.

From then onwards, local authorities will have to get approval for any selective licensing scheme that covers more than 20% of their area or housing.

Local authorities must also satisfied that the area they want to license contains a high proportion of private rental properties, and that it meets at least one of four other conditions where a selective licensing designation would help.

These are that the council intends to inspect for Category 1 and 2 hazards; that the area has had an influx of migration; that the area is deprived; or that the area has a high level of crime.

A Liverpool spokesperson said: “We are looking very closely at the wording to see how it impacts on us, or not.”

Another council which could be caught is Croydon, which plans to introduce licensing across its whole borough.

Croydon Council’s cabinet is due to meet tonight to rubber-stamp officers’ recommendations to approve the scheme. It is understood that the authority plans to press on regardless.

The April 1 date is significant because it is an absolute date – ie, there is no transition period.

This could suggest that any authority introducing a scheme on or after that date, where the scheme complied with existing rules, may well have to tear everything up and go back to the drawing board.

Campaigning organisations Shelter and Generation Rent reacted angrily to the clampdown on licensing.

Alex Hilton, of Generation Rent, said it was disappointing that it had been “rushed through without consultations with tenants’ groups and local authorities”.

Martha Mackenzie, of Shelter, said: “This new measure interferes with councils’ autonomy.”

Although housing minister Brandon Lewis wrote to local council leaders in the middle of last week about the new clampdown, the news was not made ‘official’ until last Friday when the Government published its long-awaited response to a consultation.

See next three stories.

Lord Ahmed of Wimbledon also used Friday to make a ministerial statement about the private rented sector.

It can be found here