The last week has seemed as if the whole country is witnessing a bonfire of the sanities. The calm of the mourning period following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II perhaps presaging in some ways what was to come next.

Yes! It can be taken as read that the above premise will cause, at best, raised eyebrows amongst (a great) many in the landlord and managing agent community but, bear with us.

When we first asked this not so rhetorical question* we touched on the partnership work that many councils are now successfully doing within communities and across organisations to get better outcomes for residents. But we also thought that councils needed to do more to bring private rented sector landlords on board - persuading them to get with the programme so to speak.

However you phrase it - “social value”, “place making”, “safer streets”, “stronger communities” “regeneration”, “levelling up” or simply the more transactional “bang per buck” - the destination is the same ….. better outcomes for residents.

As long as private rented sector selective licence schemes exist it is likely that push back (often angry, sometimes constructive) from some quarters in the landlord community will also exist. The oft cited “it’s a tax on landlords” is a case in point...

Following the sacking of the now former DLUHC secretary of state, Michael Gove MP, one property related organisation suggested (when discussing the instalment of Mr Gove’s successor Greg Clark MP) that perhaps this could lead to a resetting of the Government’s relationship with the private rented sector and see the end of “anti landlord rhetoric”.

Some of the immediate reactions, from the private rented sector at least, to the release of the recent rental reform white paper have certainly been a little mixed. To be fair though, that’s always the case with below the line commentary, whatever the name on a publication’s masthead.

In a criminal case currently (June 2022) being heard before Canterbury Crown Court a Thanet based letting agency and its staff are accused of an orchestrated campaign of violence and vandalism directed at tenants.

“Reform” of the private rented sector (PRS) has been a long time coming, so long that it’s often seemed like every administration, no matter the political colour, has in the past been scared off by the size of the task.

Many of us are aware, not just from TV screen images of queueing ambulances outside hospitals but from our own personal experiences or those of family or friends, that our health service is under very serious strain. If more proof were needed then the news that, such is the backlog, 6.5 million people in England alone are awaiting hospital treatment, should be proof enough.