The Commons' library publishes these briefings in support of the work of MPs and parliamentary staff and this briefing provides a potted history and general overview of selective licensing from 2007 to 2023.

As such, it is also a useful primer for Councillors and council officers looking at selective licensing as a potential private rented sector regulatory tool in their council area.

The research points out the original rationale behind the legislative introduction of selective licensing (in the Housing Act 2004, coming into force in 2006) being the need to deal with persistent anti-social behaviour and area based low housing demand linked to the fast growing buy to let private rented sector (at the time of the 2004 Act the "buy to let" market was much more immature than today).

The briefing then goes on to lay out what selective licensing is, the designation procedure, the operation of licensing schemes, the number of schemes in operation and then ends with a larger section on the evaluation and views on the impact of selective licensing from the first Government evaluation in 2007 (by the then Department for Communities and Local Government) to the recent 2023 report by Parliament's Levelling Up Select Committee with other reports, reviews and policies/white papers in between those two.

Overall, the briefing gives an overview of the evolution of selective licensing since its first use and uses clickable links throughout to most of the main documents on this type of licensing including both Rugg reviews and the current Fairer Renting White Paper. Effectively, it can be regarded as a sort of "crib sheet" for MPs needing to get a grip of the subject and in this sense it is also extremely useful for council Elected Members and council officers looking at selective licensing as a potential part of their housing strategy.

The briefing can be accessed here.

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