The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) was yesterday (5th June 2022) to hear the landlord's appeal in the case of Northumberland Mews Ltd v Thanet District Council where the council had imposed 5 civil penalties on the landlord for not licensing 5 flats that they operated in a block of flats as required by the council's selective licensing scheme.

The Dept for levelling up, housing and communities has announced the launch of its Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP), a scheme designed to deal with rogue landlords who provide accommodation to vulnerable tenants at extortionate rents but provide little support in return.

Two new selective licence schemes in Burnley will go live on 21st July 2022 and run until 20th July 2027.

Birmingham city council has announced that today it has launched a public consultation on a proposed additional licensing scheme to cover around 12,000 smaller HMO properties across all 69 wards in the city. The city already has an existing mandatory licensing scheme covering around 4,000 larger HMO properties (5 or more occupants in different households).

Liverpool council has extended the early bird discount period for landlords applying for a selective licence under the council's new licensing scheme until 31st July 2022.

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.

The landlord of a Salford property which had been converted into 5 self contained flats plus a ground floor flat without a bathroom and a basement flat with its own entrance has been convicted of 2 housing offences by magistrates.

On Monday this week the Local Government Association celebrated its 25th anniversary at its conference in Harrogate which ends today. Arguably the main event in terms of key note speeches was that of the levelling up secretary Michael Gove MP.

An "elderly" landlord in Leeds has been banned from operating private rented properties after a series of magistrates court convictions starting in 2018.

Earlier this month it was estimated there would be a £1.7 billion shortfall in local government finances due to inflation, payroll costs and cost of living increases. The Local Govt Association has now revised this upwards to £2.4 billion in 2022/23 and reaching £3.6 billion by 2024/25.