Landlords are facing a postcode lottery when it comes to licensing costs.

Analysis by insurer Direct Line for Business found the cost of a new licence ranges from just £55 to £1,150 among different local authorities.

In Liverpool, the cost of a licence for a first property is £412, whereas 30 miles away in Salford it is more than 51% higher at £625.

The research – based on freedom of information requests to English local authorities and Welsh governments – found the average landlord licence across the UK costs £591.

While in Scotland and Wales landlord licence schemes are mandatory, in England just one in six local authorities have a scheme in place, separate to rules for licensing of houses in multiple occupation.

The research also identified an increase in the costs charged by local authorities for additional or selective landlord licensing schemes over the past few years.

For its additional licensing scheme, the cost of a licence in the London Borough of Newham increased by 150% in just three years, from £500 in 2014/15 to £1,250 in 2017/18, Direct Line says.

The insurer said local authorities are raising huge sums from additional landlord licensing schemes, with Liverpool City Council receiving more than £4m in a year.

On average, each council with a scheme in place raised £144,629 from landlord licensing schemes in 2017.

Local authorities across the UK recorded an average 5,069 licensing offences in 2017, an increase of 46% since 2016, Direct Line said.

However, while failing to comply with a scheme is a criminal offence that can result in prosecution and a civil penalty of up to £30,000, the average fine was just £926 in 2017.

Matt Boatwright, head of Direct Line for Business, said: “Our analysis shows landlord licensing is truly a postcode lottery, with a phenomenal range of costs for those that do have to sign up for a scheme.  Anyone planning on becoming a landlord, or who already has a property portfolio, should contact their local authority to see if they have a scheme in place.”

Commenting on the research, David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), said: “Whatever the cost of licensing, it fails to provide any assurance about the quality of accommodation.

“The RLA’s own analysis shows that there is no clear link between a council having a licensing scheme in place and levels of enforcement against criminal landlords.

“The fundamental problem with all schemes is that it is only the good landlords who come forward to be licensed.

“They completely fail to identify the crooks. They just mean landlords, and therefore tenants, having to pay more.

“Instead, councils need to be more creative in how they identify landlords by better using the powers they have to collect data using council tax returns and accessing information from deposit schemes.”