Local councils should be given the money when private landlords are fined for housing-related offences.
It would incentivise local authorities to bring prosecutions and could facilitate the setting of a common, national set of standards for landlord accreditation.
The proposal comes from the Chartered Institute of Housing, which has published its submissions to the Treasury ahead of next month’s Budget.
The Institute is also calling for an “invest to save” measure, by which the Government establishes a fund which local authorities can bid to use to support vulnerable tenants in the private rented sector.
The Institute says this would build the confidence of private landlords to let to households which they see as higher risk.
The full proposals are here
Comments (1)
Why just rogue landlords? There are plenty of rogue agents and pseudo-agents who need to have their collar’s felt and fined to encourage compliance with multiple legislation such as: EPCs, publishing agency fees, all gas safety checks in date offering safe and decent housing etc. They should be fined for advertising or managing property that fail HHSRS. There is so much legislation with fines attached – these should be made spot fines that go to court if the perpetrator wants to contest it for unfair reasons. It would therefore be a productive income generator for local councils and help force the bad practitioners out of business – bringing more business into properly managed agents’ hands.
I’m sure the property sector is not the only sector that could give money into local trading standards if it was easier to fine and for the money to be kept local to pay for the enforcement teams; it would also make enforcement more accountable at a local level.