More funding for councils to crack down on criminal landlords has been announced by the Government.
Almost £4m is being made available to councils which can put in their bids.
The new funding comes on top of last year’s £2m programme which was shared among 56 projects.
For example, Burnley used £60,000 to carry out inspections of rented homes.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “It’s unacceptable that a small minority of unscrupulous landlords appear to be breaking the law and providing homes which fall short of the standards that tenants rightly expect.
“Everyone deserves to live in a home that is safe and secure, and the funding announced today will help to further strengthen councils’ powers to crack down on criminal landlords and drive up standards in the private rented sector.”
Councils have less than a month to apply for a share of the pot, with the deadline for applications on December 1.
David Smith, policy director of the Residential Landlords Association, said: “We welcome the Government’s focus on rooting out criminal landlords. For too long the debate has been driven by ideological calls for more regulation of the sector.
“What is needed is better enforcement of the powers already available to root out the minority who bring the sector into disrepute.
“That said, today’s funding is simply not enough to achieve this.
“Rather than throwing odd bits of cash around the Government needs to provide proper, multi-year funding to councils to enable them to plan and prepare clear strategies to find the crooks whilst supporting good landlords. This includes ensuring enough funding is in place to recruit sufficient numbers of well-trained enforcement officers.”
Our local council was yesterday offering landlords 6 month’s up front rent plus a deposit to house a couple on long term benefits who have just had a baby! Neither is working, so why? Why have a baby? Why not work? Why claim every penny available? Why is the council using our council tax in this way? Because they can!
If local authorities are given funding to penalise landlords, why would landlords want to get involved with local councils?
The whole system stinks.
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Councils are still inciting contempt of court when it comes to possession orders; threatening tenants with “making themselves homeless” if they vacate before bailiffs remove them. So it is not surprising landlords do not trust councils to act professionally or with integrity.
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And this is despite the BBC story I sent a link to the editors about for a programme that showed how COUNCIL tenants were left with cockroach infestations and broken security doors leading to flagrant drug use in the stairwells??
Sort your own house out first! Literally!
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Indeed! My husband used to work for a homeless charity and was contracted to install cookers in publicly owned properties and they were nowhere near as well maintained as those in the private sector. There are of course rogue landlords out there but one would assume they won’t be using a letting agent. Can we trust local authorities to use the money wisely?
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Mothers Ruin,
There is a very simple answer NO.
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I think some don’t realise just how well Tenants have it when they have a good Landlord.
So many are so quick to bash Landlords and Agents on the behaviour of the bad apples, when if they actually spoke to any of the good ones they would discover we despise them as much as anyone else for making us look as bad as them!
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