Peterborough City Council’s Selective Licensing scheme is improving conditions in the city’s private rented sector through a proactive inspection programme designed to identify and resolve safety issues in every licensed property.

As the scheme's delivery partner, Home Safe has carried out more than 7,000 inspections on behalf of the Council, identifying potentially enforceable hazards in more than 66 per cent of homes inspected.

As the first inspection programme nears completion, more than 43,000 hazards and compliance issues have been uncovered. Approximately 13,000 presented a serious risk to tenants’ health or safety, including damp and mould, fire safety risks, missing window restrictors and electrical concerns.

Introduced in March 2024 and running until March 2029, the scheme requires landlords in designated areas of Peterborough to hold a licence for each property they rent out. Under the scheme, every property will be inspected twice during the five-year licensing period.

The Council’s commitment to inspecting every licensed property means issues can be identified directly, rather than relying solely on complaints from tenants, who may be unaware of the risks, reluctant to complain or may have accepted poor conditions as normal.

Home Safe is supporting the delivery of the scheme, including carrying out property inspections and subsequent compliance follow-up on the Council’s behalf. Landlords receive clear instructions explaining any work required and appropriate timescales for completion, followed by checks to confirm that the necessary improvements have been made. Where landlords fail to cooperate, or serious conditions require direct enforcement action, Home Safe refers cases to the Council’s Housing Standards team. The Council retains responsibility for formal enforcement action.

Every licensed property covered by the scheme has now either been inspected, undergone a compliance audit or is due to be inspected shortly by Home Safe.

Of the properties inspected, 892 have been referred to the Council due to poor property conditions. Since the scheme began, the Council has served more than 200 formal enforcement notices to tackle major disrepair and secured four prosecutions where landlords failed to address the issues identified. It has also issued 110 Civil Penalties for licensing offences.

Together, proactive inspections, compliance follow-up and targeted enforcement are helping thousands of tenants and families live in safer rented homes.

At one property, Home Safe inspectors uncovered seven serious hazards, including extensive damp and mould in the kitchen, dining room, bathroom and two bedrooms, a missing window restrictor and smoke detectors with missing or dead batteries on both floors.

Following the inspection, Home Safe notified the landlord and set clear timescales for the necessary work. The required improvements were completed within those timescales. Without the proactive inspection, these hazards may have remained unreported, leaving the four tenants exposed to avoidable health, fire and safety risks.

Councillor Christian Hogg, Cabinet Member for Regulatory Services and Enforcement, said:

“I’m delighted that Selective Licensing is making a positive difference in our communities. The overwhelming majority of landlords engaged positively with the inspection process and completed the required work. As a result, thousands of hazards have been addressed, and thousands of tenants and families are now living in safer rented homes.

“Only a small proportion of cases required referral to the council by Home Safe because a landlord failed to cooperate or a serious risk posing imminent danger was identified. This demonstrates that our proactive approach to inspections and follow-ups can secure improvements without formal enforcement action in most cases.

“The property-level evidence gathered through these inspections has also given the council a much clearer understanding of conditions in the private rented sector, enabling us to identify recurring problems and focus resources where tenants face the greatest risk.”

Mike Brook, Scheme Manager at Home Safe, said:

“The scale of serious hazards uncovered in this first programme reinforces just how important proactive inspections are in identifying and addressing substandard unsafe housing. A rental property may appear compliant on paper, but when we step through the front door, we have found so many cases where tenants are living with conditions that pose a serious risk to their health and safety.

“Peterborough City Council’s commitment to ensuring every licensed property is inspected is making a real difference by identifying hazards wherever they exist and requiring landlords to address them or face enforcement.”

Second inspection programme underway

As the first inspection programme draws to a close, Home Safe has begun the second programme on the Council’s behalf.

Properties will be revisited to ensure previous improvements have been maintained, identify any new or recurring hazards, and confirm continued compliance with property standards and licence conditions.

The Council continues to remind landlords in designated Selective Licensing areas who have not yet applied that they must do so without delay.

For more information about the scheme and how to apply, visit Peterborough City Council’s Selective Licensing webpage.