Birmingham and Southwark councils have both reported significant planning enforcement successes against PRS landlords - £83,000 in fines and costs in Birmingham and £52,000 in Southwark.

In Birmingham, 2 landlords had rented out a basement flat described in local media as "Hobbit-sized" and by a local Councillor as "a very unpleasant living environment". The window to the flat effectively faced a brick wall and council officers said it was very small, allowed very little light in and an outlook on to the street was impossible. After the landlords ignored an order to stop renting the flat out the planning enforcement team commenced a prosecution and at Crown Court the landlords were each ordered to pay £4000 in costs within 2 months or face imprisonment and pay a confiscation order of £67,000 (of illegal rental profits) within 3 months or face a prison sentence of 16 months.

Cllr. Martin Brooks, Chair of the Planning Committee at Birmingham Council, was quoted in the Birmingham Mail as saying " We do hear from members from time to time of concerns and difficulties over planning enforcement and I just wanted to make people aware of a very successful prosecution .... This is an important victory for the city and demonstrates how the city is dealing with rogue landlords".

Meanwhile, in Southwark, a landlord who had "squashed three tiny flats into the basement of one of his properties, so that he could collect the rent from three households, instead of one" and had installed a "sub-standard rear window extension" on the roof of another property" pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to planning offences and was ordered to pay a £42,637 confiscation order and £10,000 in council costs. He had been prosecuted after failing to rectify the "illegal developments".

Cllr. James McAsh, Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Sustainable Development, said "This was a shameless attempt to shoehorn three tiny flats into one basement .... This outcome serves as a warning ... It also supports us in cracking down on those who try to benefit from renting [out] illegal and substandard properties in Southwark".

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