A new 5 year selective licensing scheme covering all private rented properties across 25 city wards in Birmingham, with landlord fees set at £700 per 5 year licence, has been given the green light by the Government.

The research was carried out for Greenpeace by Cambridge Econometrics and focuses on insulation of residential properties and the installation of heat pumps taking into account 2022 energy prices and their knock on effects for households including in the private rented sector.

The former Civil Service chief, who now chairs the Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, reportedly said of the knock on effects of the cost of living crisis that "this could .... become a homelessness crisis as well as an economic crisis and the results could be catastrophic" and that all the achievements in reducing street homelessness during the pandemic would be undone.

The buy to let market is undergoing "a profound transformation" Imran Hussain of Harmony Financial Services is quoted as saying. Lewis Shaw of Shaw Financial Services says that "Increasingly, amateur landlords are calling it a day .... they can ask agents whet the market value of a property is and then sell directly to the tenants to avoid any agent's fees."

Immediately after publication of the Govt white paper on rental reform in England the National Residential Landlord Association surveyed 3,500 landlords and says the results show that "Almost 90% of landlords feel the .... white paper .... demonstrates an anti-landlord agenda."

In an appeal, before the Upper Tier Tribunal, by Waltham Forest Council against a First Tier Tribunal ruling on a negative Fit & Proper Person (to hold a selective licence or HMO licence) decision made by the Council, the Council has only partly won it's appeal.

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.

The LGA has, in a consultation response to a Government draft National Air Pollution Control Programme, again raised concerns about funding of Local Authority regulatory services and the shortage of skilled council officers.

The National Residential Landlords Association has raised concerns over the call made by Natalie Elphicke MP for a 2 year private rented sector rent freeze In England in an article that she wrote for the Conservative Home website.

If in England we don't have a proper home insulation and energy efficiency upgrade plan then, effectively, the money about to be thrown at the energy price freeze by the new Govt may not actually count for much in the long term says new analysis.