Agenda item

7.1      Roz Spencer (Co-ordinator, Rogue Landlords Taskforce), gave a presentation to the meeting. The key points to note were:

• There have been a few Government changes since the consultation was initiated:
  • Housing Bill introducing new system of fines
  • Consultation on amending Mandatory Licensing regime to include all Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)
  • ‘Right to Rent’ requirements on private landlords – risks for the council
• The consultation lasted 12 weeks - from 1September 2015 to 24 November 2015 (10 weeks statutory minimum)
• The consultation consisted of:
  • Consultation document and on-line survey on Lewisham website
  • Mail shot of over 4000 letters to all addresses with combination of commercial and residential, with invitation to public meeting, summary of the proposal and link to website
  • Public meeting 15th September 2015, which had 40 attendees
  • Emails to subscribers to Lewisham Life magazine with links  to the consultation document on the council website
  • A written briefing note to Ward Assembly meetings
  • National Landlord Association (NLA), Residential Landlords Association (RLA), Generation Rent, London Property Licensing.co.uk and all neighbouring borough’s websites asked to publicise the consultation and provide hyperlink to our website
  • hard copies of the document available at Laurence House Customer Access Point
• In terms of responses, there were 136 on-line responses. There were four detailed organisational responses - NLA, Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), LB Lambeth and RLA.
• Respondents information:
  • Overwhelming majority live in the borough
  • Largest group of respondents were owner-occupiers, about 40% of whom were private landlords
  • Slightly more of the respondents were private tenants than private landlords (56% vs 44%)
  • More than half the landlords let only one property, only 3% have portfolios over 10 properties
• The opinions on the ‘5 key questions’ from the consultation are as follows:
  • “More properties for private rent should be licensed” - Strongest opinion and biggest consensus this included a quarter of the private landlords. No private landlords disagreed with the statement
  • “Licensing improves conditions” - big majority agree including just under a third of private landlords, though 21% disagreed with the statement
  • “It is right to target flats above commercial premises” 60% agreed though private landlords were divided on the question with only one quarter of them agreeing. 90 % of tenants were in agreement
  • The standards to be met for a license: a small majority felt standards proposed are about right, but 28% who were overwhelmingly private tenants, felt the standards were not tough enough. Just under half of landlords considered them too tough.
  • On the proposed fee of £100-110 pa – opinion was most divided on this question; a small majority favoured the fee being at least the proposed sum but more than two thirds of landlords thought the fee too high
• Some of the qualitative feedback from the consultation consisted of the following:
  • NLA in support of the scheme, see this as a positive opportunity to campaign for more small landlords to gain accreditation – partnership work plan in place
  • CAB - no evidence of more people from over shops complaining – in keeping with council enforcement teams experience – maybe these complaints are not forthcoming due to fear of retaliation from landlords is unknown.
  • There was a fear that a licensing scheme could cut links to immigration; there was some agreement that there was a risk of driving those immigrants and those that exploit them further underground. 
• There were a number of other questions posed in the consultation, some examples being:                  
  • Should there be a requirement to control pests?
  • Will we give landlords a chance to comply with licence conditions first before refusing it?
  • Can we increase fines for landlords who don’t comply?
  • Can we require annual inspections by qualified surveyors?
• The consultation recognised that there were some challenges posed by the licensing, such as:
  • The Licensing scheme penalises good landlords while the rogues go under the radar
  • The costs will be passed onto tenants and will reduce supply of affordable housing
  • There are more cost effective schemes based on self-regulation and partnership
• There are revised estimates for the scheme now, with the scheme costing in total £431,000 per year. License fee income is estimated to be £175,000 per year and net cost to the council £156,000 per year.
• In conclusion, the consultation found that:
  • All aspects of the proposals were supported by a majority of respondents
  • The survey captured the opinions of both landlords and tenants; landlords were more negative about the proposals while tenants were strongly supportive
  • Landlords did not disagree with the principle of licensing
  • Just under half of the landlords considered the proposed standards too tough, and only one third agreed licensing improves standards
  • Less than a third of landlords were in support of the proposed fee
  • Only a quarter of landlords agreed with licensing flats over commercial
• The next steps for the consultation are take the recommendations via scrutiny to Mayor & Cabinet on 16January 2016. After Mayor and Cabinet considers the consultation and revised costs, Implementation of the Licensing Scheme will be drawn up. A Statutory Notice would need to be issued for 3 months prior to going live with the Licensing Scheme.

7.2      In response to questions from the Committee, the following was noted:

• The Committee were happy with the conclusions of the consultation and the way they had been presented to the Committee.

7.3      RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the presentation and commended the results of the consultation before they went to Mayor and Cabinet.