It is no secret that private landlords have had a difficult time recently. Perceived by many in the industry as an easy target for the Government, buy-to-let landlords have been hit by the 3% stamp duty penalty, changes to mortgage interest tax relief, new energy standards and now, for landlords in Nottingham City, the introduction of selective licensing.

In August 2018 Nottingham City Council launched its licensing scheme for 32,000 properties in the city, with 91% of non-HMO privately rented homes becoming part of the scheme, making it the largest of its kind outside of London.

With the aim of raising standards in the private rental sector (PRS) ensuring that all tenants can enjoy a safe, comfortable well managed home, Nottingham is just one of the many councils who have seized selective licensing as a tool to tackle poor management standards in the PRS sector, designating and targeting licensing in areas considered to have persistent anti-social behaviour, high crime and low standards of property repair.

In the face of considerable opposition from landlords regarding timescales, costs, the capacity of the council to cope with the process and the ability of the scheme to root out rogue and criminal elements, Nottingham forged ahead with the scheme’s introduction.

A further major concern was that given the onslaught of financial and regulatory changes directed at the sector, selective licensing could become ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’ and result in landlords selling up with the result that the tenants this scheme was intended to help may well end up worse off as they compete for fewer quality properties and face higher rents.

Nottingham is a fast-paced and competitive rental market which needs more landlords and properties in the marketplace to meet the demands of businesses who need attractive city centre properties to attract and house employees.

So, six months on, are the concerns raised locally and nationally by industry experts being realised?

Certainly, fears about the level of bureaucracy have been realised with claims that the 76 office staff administering the scheme are ‘sinking in paper work.’ As of November 2018, 13,450 applications had been received, of which 5993 had been processed. Of these only 2457 have been validated, while a further 3,536 have been returned to landlords because of paper work errors. Landlords point to the poor quality of the on-line registration forms causing mistakes in their completion.

Given that council staff are embroiled with the registration process, the scheme has yet to provide any evidence of prosecution of rogue landlords, with Councillor Linda Woodings acknowledging that the ‘bulge in applications’ means that officers will only be able to move onto enforcement once the number of applications evens out.

Sadly, so far Nottingham’s scheme echoes the trend identified by ARLA which shows that resources raised are not being directed at tackling the criminal elements but are instead consumed by the bureaucracy and expense of administering the scheme.

The concern of many landlords and those within the business community that I speak with regularly, is that Selective Licensing will ultimately reduce the amount of quality accommodation in the rental sector. Nottingham needs to be able to attract and keep young professionals for the prosperity of the city and its businesses and therefore needs a diverse housing mix with good quality accommodation. In a city dominated by huge increases in student housing, the concern is that reputable landlords that rent to professionals may leave the market, reducing stock and driving up prices for tenants. Indeed, already some tenants are blaming the scheme for their landlord’s decision to sell up or raise rental prices.

Regulation of the PRS market is essential to raise standards across the industry and improve the professional image of landlords and agents, especially in cities such as Nottingham where we play a vital role in the city’s housing market.

In my opinion, the best way to do this is to make it compulsory for all landlords and lettings agents to be regulated by an approved industry body. This would ensure consistent standards nationally as it would require agents and landlords to operate at a higher standard than that currently required by law; such as to have minimum levels of qualifications, client money protection and professional insurances. None of these are currently required by Nottingham City Council’s selective licensing scheme.

Adam Kingswood MARLA