The UK’s first city-wide licensing scheme of private landlords is to go ahead despite a government clampdown.
A second council, Croydon, is pushing through its own scheme, saying that the Government is trying to bully local authorities.
Liverpool says its scheme will be introduced on April 1.
The announcement follows its admission last week that the council was “looking very closely” at a Government statement that it is tightening up on blanket licensing schemes.
New rules will mean that any selective licensing scheme covering more than 20% of an area or number of households will need specific government permission.
Schemes would also have to fulfill other criteria before their introduction could be considered.
Liverpool’s assistant mayor and cabinet member for housing, Cllr Ann O’Byrne, said: “We have had confirmation from the Government that Liverpool’s landlord licensing scheme is not affected by the recently announced changes because we have already made a decision to introduce it.
“Landlord licensing will drive up the quality of the 50,000 privately rented properties in the city and help tenants plagued by rogue landlords.”
Separately, Croydon Council’s cabinet approved its own scheme for selective licensing this week. The scheme itself, which will charge £750 for licences, will not come into force until October.
Cllr Tim Pollard, leader of the council’s Conservative opposition, said: “This is a seriously flawed decision. Cabinet has decided to implement a decision which has clearly not been considered in the light of the impending change in the law.
“In just two weeks’ time this decision could not be taken, and the law will have changed six months before implementation.”
However, council leader Tony Newma, accused the housing minister of trying to bully local authorities.
He said: “As the leader of this democratically elected council, I will not be intimidated by the Government.
“The scheme is welcome by the many good landlords in Croydon, by tenants and by the communities who are fed up of seeing their streets covered in rubbish by those landlords that are not so good.”
The stubbornness of these councils is unbelievable. Other councils in this country have already successfully used existing laws to deal with the problems. LEARN!
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A good example in my experience is the Leeds Landlord Accreditation Scheme run by the city council in partnership with the Residential Landlords Association.
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Liverpool may set a very dangerous precendent here. As per normal the ‘bad apples’ will have a disproportionate effect on the good ones.
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Could Tony Newman name a single Landlord who is happy to start paying additional charges that inevitably is going to make his business less profitable !
Is Mr Newman serious ? – that would be like a Turkey voting for Xmas !
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