As a new wave of licensing proposals loom – too many for Eye to report – a landlord has hit out at a council’s plans to introduce Newham-style compulsory licensing across its entire patch, saying it is “an abuse of legislation”.

Richard Blanco, who is an area representative of the National Landlords Association, has properties in east London, including two in Ilford – part of the Redbridge Council area.

A five-year licence would cost £250 if landlords applied within the first three months of introduction, or £500.

Blanco said: “I’m very disappointed to see another copycat borough-wide landlord licensing scheme in east London.

“As with other schemes it is the good landlords who will pay for licences and the borough will still have to seek out the bad ones.

“This is an abuse of legislation that was intended to deal with anti-social behaviour as a last resort in targeted areas, not for driving up property standards. We need local authorities to make better use of their existing powers.

“The local authority risks alienating the very people it desperately needs to provide accommodation.

“Licensing requires huge bureaucracy and this is a waste of council resources. Existing powers could be better used through intelligence led enforcement.

“We have seen tokenism consultations in other boroughs where politicians have no interest in listening to landlords and then impose very onerous and poorly drafted licensing conditions.

“This is local councillors posturing so they look like they are doing something to ‘sort out bad landlords’ when there is little evidence that licensing can improve housing for local residents.”

More here from the local paper.