Council struggles to get a grip on “bad service” for private tenants

Article published: Tuesday, January 18th 2011

Manchester City Council announced its first two successful prosecutions of unlicensed landlords today, following three years of a scheme to regulate private housing which had failed to impose any sanctions since its launch.

Fines and costs totalling over £4,000 were levied against landlords Brian Rafter and Mohammed Asher on January 12 for attempting to evade the requirement to obtain licenses. The convictions follow admissions by councillors and senior officials last week that its “selective licensing” scheme has so far had little impact against exploitative landlords.

On the day prior to the convictions the council’s Neighbourhoods and Communities Overview and Scrutiny meeting was convened to discuss the regulation of private landlords.  Councillors at the meeting heard that in over three years of the scheme’s operation not a single prosecution or sanction had until then been brought against offending landlords and that instead of providing an effective means of protecting tenants it had become a ‘bureaucratic machine’.

Mark Glynn, head of Private Sector Housing (PSH), acknowledged the scheme had failed to target “the landlords who matter.”

This was echoed by Labour councillors sat on the committee. Councillor Mick Loughman of Ancoats gave a scathing assessment of the scheme: “Enforcement is nil. We are running a bad service.”

Poor protections

The scheme was introduced by the council’s PSH department in August 2007 under powers conferred by legislation. It covers all private landlords in Harpurhey, Gorton, Bradford and the Lightbowne area of Moston, who must apply for a license which imposes certain obligations to maintain the upkeep and safety of rented properties.

The application fee for a license currently stands at £425 for the first property and £317 for each subsequent property. Landlords must provide gas and electrical safety certificates to the PSH department as well as a basic Criminal Record Bureau check to show that they are not involved in “serious criminal behaviour.”

Yet one criticism of the scheme is that the lack of sanctions for those who do not comply means only honest landlords will apply for licenses, leaving unscrupulous property-owners to act with impunity – as seen by the complete absence of enforcement so far.

Glynn acknowledged these shortcomings: “We need to be able to make the distinction between good and bad landlords,” he asserted. “At the moment [the scheme] is just collecting invoices from decent and half-decent landlords.” Councillors on the committee added that in their view current arrangements were burdensome on landlords without conferring any benefits.

An end to impunity?

Outlining changes to the department’s activities, Glynn told the committee that in order to achieve positive outcomes before the scheme’s expiry in 2012 measures had been implemented including the development of a more robust enforcement policy, targeting of priority areas and simplification of fee payment. This would, according to the council official, amount to specifically targeting the worst offending landlords as a deterrent to others.

Today’s announcement of the prosecutions appears to indicate an end to the impotence which had plagued licensing enforcement, with head of the council’s Neighbourhood Services Councillor Paul Andrews warning landlords who evade the rules that “if they do not act responsibly and meet their legal obligations, we will prosecute.”

In the pipeline there is another case awaiting prosecution, 34 pending consideration and a further 160 under investigation. However, due to the poor impact of Selective Licensing the scheme will not be rolled out to cover the rest of the city. Councillors further warned Glynn, who is relatively new to his post, that he had inherited an inherently problematic department with inadequate resources to cope with the city’s estimated 10,000 private landlords.

Underfunded and overstrained

Funding issues are likely to impact on the ability of council officers to regulate private sector housing in the years ahead. The council has been hit with cuts to its budget of around 25 per cent over the next two years. It is predicted that as Housing Benefit rates are reduced there will be an influx of people to the city seeking cheaper rented accommodation, increasing the inspection and enforcement workload of an already strained department.

Meanwhile in order to cope with cuts the council is merging inspection services from private sector housing, environment and highways to form Integrated Neighbourhood Delivery Teams which will provide ‘generic services’.

Of the estimated 25,000 households in the private rented sector in Manchester the council says the most problematic properties are concentrated in former right-to-buy social housing estates, where many houses were bought up by landlords. Little if any social housing stock was created under New Labour, with no council homes built in Manchester for 20 years until last November when the construction of 171 new houses in West Gorton was announced.

Consequently, the potential for unscrupulous landlords to take advantage of tenants who cannot find affordable alternatives in Manchester might be expected to worsen as cuts to housing benefit start to bite. The January 11 report of the Neighbourhood Services department to the council warned of “increased pressure on the private rented sector” as people unable to afford a mortgage or secure a council home will have little choice but to rent privately.

Limits to the council’s ability to intervene in private contractual agreements between tenants and landlords under the current scheme were also raised by councillors, which hinder the ability of officers to intervene in forcing landlords to make repairs to properties of intervene where rent is considered excessively high. Additionally, government measures will likely make it even more difficult for local authorities who attempt to get to grip with bad private landlords.

In a speech last June housing minister Grant Shapps rejected proposals to establish a national register of landlords or regulate letting and management agents.  Speaking in parliament the minister said he was “satisfied the current system strikes the right balance between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords.”

He continued: “The government has no plans to create any burdensome red tape and bureaucracy.”

Michael Pooler

Tweet

More: Council, News

Comments

1. Council in ‘doing nothing while hiring lots of staff and spending lots of money shocker’!

   Whatever next.

   Comment by simon on January 19, 2011 at 3:19 pm

The comments are closed.