This year is on track to surpass 2023’s record of 32 new schemes, with 19 selective and additional licensing schemes and consultations taking place within the first four months of the year, according to Kamma.
Already this year, six new licensing schemes have begun in Greenwich, Nottingham, Islington, Warwick, and Luton. London takes the lead with active consultations starting in Haringey, Lambeth, Waltham Forest, and most recently Bexley, all signalling a strong desire to implement new selective and additional licensing measures across the capital. Luton has been the most recent council to implement new licensing schemes, with both additional and selective measures launching this week.
Some 14 schemes are also set to terminate this year, with a strong likelihood of scheme renewals. The impending Renter’s Reform Bill and calls for landlords to discontinue selective licensing schemes makes it highly probable that councils will push to renew these measures before the passing of the bill.
Newham council recently issued its first ever banning order to a landlord letting out an unlicensed property, emphasising the common trend in councils for stronger enforcement against non-compliant agents and landlords in the face of unprecedented new schemes.
Orla Shields, CEO of Kamma, said: “2024 is a pivotal year for property licensing in the UK. With a record number of new schemes and consultations, the landscape is shifting rapidly. Landlords and agents must be vigilant in ensuring that their properties are licensed.”
This just goes to show how predatory these jack boot councils are. At the risk of losing the opportunity of selective licensing cash cows due to the likely changes that may come about due to the introduction of the Renter Reform Act. So many councils are rushing to introduce licensing scheme to lock in their income. Naturally they will blame the Nasty Landlords. The same way that councils kill off town centres with business rates, parking restrictions and charges etc, it is centred around funding council coffers than necessary licensing. Most responsible Landlords do not need to be licensed. As they say just follow the money to see where this is coming from. Having recently dealt with a Southwark License I was surprised how agressively worded it was. It has caused my tenant of many years to have to pay an increase in rent to cover all their rules, regulations and increased administration. It has increased management time and costs significantly. Had the property had been mortgaged I would have had to sold up and evicted my tenant, a tenant I very much value. The purple political parties (Labour and Conservative) have a Rizla paper between their policies and all the main parties are as bad as one another. Where else would you make a large financial investment to provide housing to let your investment be controlled by a bunch of market illiterate bureaucrats (other than the EU)? Who is the ultimate loser? The poor tenants as costs get passed down the line or landlords abandon the market causing scarcity and rising rents. I wonder what other landlords think about this?
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Yes seems very odd that councils and mayors are elected to serve the local citizens, but they have become self serving, whilst I do not reside in the UK I was once very proud of my roots sadly I really feel sorry the average working person, nobody answers the phones-reply’s to emails and charges just keep rising.
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