A new 5 year selective licensing scheme covering all private rented properties across 25 city wards in Birmingham, with landlord fees set at £700 per 5 year licence, has been given the green light by the Government.

Due to its size, the scheme will be the largest in the country covering between 40,000 and 50,000 private rented properties. It required approval from the Government because it covers wards where the private rented sector comprises more than 20% of residential properties.

Birmingham Council also says that these wards also suffer from high levels of deprivation and/or crime and that building its property licensing team will create 130 new jobs.

Cllr. Sharon Thompson, the council's cabinet member for housing and homelessness, says the scheme was approve after "extensive [public] consultation" and that it will help to drive up standards across the private rented sector in the city. She adds that the council wants "to ensure that private properties in our poorest wards are providing fit and proper accommodation and that landlords are adhering to their legal responsibilities. While many already do, the introduction of licence conditions that cover a range of issues [including waste bins, tenant references and ASB] will ensure the council is in a position to engage and regulate this sector appropriately."

In addition, the scheme will allow the council to engage with all landlords across all the privately rented properties to drive up standards "and join up with other services" to tackle issues such as the high levels of crime that have "blighted" these 25 wards and thus to create safer and more stable communities so that more tenants "especially children" are enabled to reach their full potential.

Given that the Government is consulting on how the proposed national property portal (part of the rental reform plans for the private rented sector) can be integrated with licensing and that it has given its approval for such a large scheme to go ahead - starting on 5th June 2023 - this could suggest that the new Government has no intention of scrapping, as requested by landlord bodies, selective licensing simply because the property portal is being set up. Perhaps the clue is in what Cllr. Thompson has said about joining up with other services and creating stable communities. Selective licensing is not just a tool for driving up physical standards in properties, it is part of the toolkit councils are using for wider priorities - regeneration, place making, building community cohesion and improving health and well being and educational attainment.