The landlord failed to attend the Magistrates Court hearing and was ordered to pay a fine of £660, costs of £300 and a victim surcharge of £65 for "failing to properly licence a house .... he owned and rented out.

Council officers had made numerous attempts, by email and letter, to make contact with the landlord about licensing his property but to no avail. Cllr. John Harbour, Executive Member for Housing and Development Control, said "We want to work with private landlords to help improve standards for their tenants. In this case the landlord was given every opportunity to do the right thing, apply for a licence, and work with us but he thought he could ignore us. It's proved to be costly for him".

Meanwhile, after an 11 week public consultation, the council looks set to approve the extension of selective licensing of private rented properties in the two areas of Leyland Road and Burnley Wood and Healey Wood in the town. The council says that, if given the go ahead by its executive, the proposal will then need to go to the Secretary of State at DLUHC for final approval. Cllr. Harbour said "Extending selective licensing in these areas will help enable the good work and progress that's been made so far to continue and be built upon. Selective licensing has been effective in improving these two areas and tenants, landlords and the wider communities have all benefitted from the initiatives".

The council says that it has operated selective licensing in the borough since 2008 as part of its wider regeneration strategy and that in the 5 years that the current scheme has been operating they have seen a fall off in housing disrepair complaints, anti-social behaviour and environmental crime and that house prices have risen. There have also been improvements in property and area security measures as well as a decrease in the number of empty homes.

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