Local authority selective licensing schemes, now increasingly being used by councils seeking to improve living conditions in their local private rented sector, can be a way of moving beyond the debate surrounding a recent byelection result (extensively covered elsewhere)

The landlord, who was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to charity, had been previously fined £20,000 in 2009 for illegally converting a house into 3 flats.

The recent byelection result in Uxbridge seems to have sent out ripples beyond merely a new addition to the House of Commons roll call not least, depending on one's view, blaming it on or crediting for it, London's ULEZ scheme.

The BRE has published a new report that provides a 'cost benefit analysis' of carrying out a national programme of remediation of substandard housing in England that would pay for itself, over 9 years, in Health Service savings alone.

The landlord had been found guilty of housing offences in his absence by Colchester Magistrates in one case and changed his plea to guilty in the second case before Basildon Magistrates.

We previously covered this case in 2022 when it was before the Upper Tier Tribunal (UTT) deciding on the council's decision to revoke a landlord's licences and refuse to grant new licences due to fraudulent licence applications.

The landlord identified himself simply as "a man" during a prosecution at Bristol Magistrates court brought by South Gloucestershire Council's private sector housing team.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health says its Manifesto is aimed at raising the profile of the Environmental Health profession "among policymakers" ahead of the next general election.

The council says that it chose the civil penalty route in this case, rather than a prosecution, as the fine "will be used to help support its private sector housing team