Whether or not you think the question is rhetorical, it is the case that an element of professionalism is increasingly required of landlords operating in the private rented sector and that this requirement isn’t just coming from tenants and groups supporting or lobbying for tenant interests.

Throughout the last decade, Local Authorities have had to react and adapt radically to a series of almost existential (in some cases) challenges to how they provide services to their residents, businesses and communities. Those challenges won’t be fading away anytime soon and the importance of the role that local council’s play is evidenced in the way that much government support for sections of the public is being channelled through councils.

Reading through residential property media these days isn’t guaranteed to calm a landlord’s nerves nor, for that matter, those of the average tenant, agent, environmental health officer or councillor. The sector seems to be experiencing a fever dream and it might be a while before the fever breaks.

With new rental reform legislation in the pipeline and at least 36 pieces of current legislation and associated regulations to cope with as well as, in some areas, local authority selective licensing conditions and associated fees it can seem for private landlords as if they are under the cosh on a permanent basis. But what’s the reality, and are private landlords, as a class, “hard done by”?

Arguably, the April 2022 report into regulation of the private rented sector by the House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) didn’t really tell us anything that we didn’t already know...

In 2019 an independent review carried out for the Government concluded that Selective Licensing is an effective tool for use by Local Authorities in dealing with private rented sector housing problems in their areas. But, and certainly in the current pandemic related financial situation, can partnership working be an improvement on the current way of working for Local Authorities that decide to use the Selective Licensing tool available to them?

A recent report from the BRE (Building Research Establishment) estimates that the annual total cost to the NHS of treating patients suffering from the impact of their living conditions in properties within England is around £1.4 billion per year.

The housing market has gone through phenomenal changes since the millennium. In that time private rented sector households have doubled to 4.4 million, there are now an estimated 1.5 million private landlords, the social housing sector has withered on the vine and – the 2004 Housing Act came into force putting in place a licensing system that Local Authorities could use as part of their private rented housing regulatory toolkit

Where Selective Licensing is concerned it’s a true to say that strong opinions are held, either for or against, by different stakeholders in an area that has been designated for a Selective Licensing scheme. Landlords often (but not always) seem to fall into the “against” camp.

In 2019 an independent review carried out for the Government concluded that Selective Licensing is an effective tool for use by Local Authorities in dealing with private rented sector housing problems in their areas. But, and certainly in the current pandemic related financial situation, can partnership working be an improvement on the current way of working for Local Authorities that decide to use the Selective Licensing tool available to them?