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?

That almost all Local Authority selective licensing schemes run over budget is a fact that has been confirmed by the MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government...