Rent it Right – Selective Licensing Scheme

Not applicable.

Local Authorities have a discretionary power to introduce licensing for privately rented properties accommodating single households. Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004 sets out the scheme for licensing private rented properties in a local authority area. Under Section 80 of this Act, a local housing authority can designate parts of its area as being subject to selective licensing.

The London Borough of Bexley introduced a selective licensing scheme on the 1st October 2018 which was applied in four defined areas in the north of the Borough, covering Thamesmead, Lower Belvedere, Erith and Manor Road.

The intention of the scheme is to improve conditions for the most vulnerable tenants and provide further regulatory control of the private rented sector. The identified areas evidenced high levels of private renting coupled with high levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB) when compared to national and borough averages.

The scheme is a proactive approach that resolves the issue of relying entirely on complaints to flag issues; will improve conditions for the most vulnerable tenants and provide further regulatory control of the private rented sector. It is important that we ensure landlord compliance with the licensing scheme and that we take the necessary enforcement action to ensure properties that require a licence are licensed.

Benefits of using a selective licensing scheme

The designation of these areas identified as subject to the selective licensing scheme means:

• improved control over the use and management of privately rented housing in the areas identified as the most problematic in Bexley
• provided a means to improve the condition and management of rented properties in areas with the highest levels of ASB and highest proportion of private rented properties in Bexley
• provided a means to target and improve poorly managed property

In addition to these benefits the introduction of the scheme and the conditions that landlords are required to comply with, improves other important aspects of private renting in Bexley such as:

• improve the living conditions for all tenants including the most vulnerable who do not come forward to make complaints
• improve the Council’s relationships with landlords
• provide more help, support and education for landlords
• encourage landlords to provide better quality accommodation
• encourage and require landlords to be better informed about their legal duties and responsibilities towards their property and tenants
• encourage and support more landlords to become and remain accredited which will improve property standards and management
• better inform tenants about their rights and responsibilities
• reduce ASB and promote safe attractive neighbourhoods
• crack down on rogue landlords
• raise the profile of private renting in Bexley to make it more attractive and accessible to everyone
• improve data on the private rented sector in Bexley to enable the Council to be better informed and proactive in its decision making and in designing and promoting initiatives to support landlords and tenants

The introduction of the licensing scheme supports the Council in meeting the aims of the Housing Strategy 2020 to 2025 and supports our Bexley Plan 2022 to 2026, which is our vision for the borough. The introduction of the selective licensing scheme links into and directly supports a stated aim of the Bexley Community Safety Partnership Strategy 2022 to 2025 to tackle identified anti-social behaviour.

Enforcement of selective licensing scheme:

• over the duration of the scheme, there were 2,104 (86%) applications out of the estimated 2,451 licensable properties within the selective licensing areas
• the Council investigates unlicensed properties through a combination of its own data and complaints received from tenants and neighbours. Where landlords fail to licence a property, the Council can either prosecute the landlord or issue a civil penalty notice (CPN). Income received from the payment of a Civil Penalty Notice can be retained by the Council provided that it is used to further our statutory functions in relation to enforcement activities covering the private rented sector. 23 Civil Penalty Notices have been issued for failure to licence properties in Bexley since the scheme began
• the Council has inspected 310 properties within the selective licensing scheme. In total, 220 of these properties had at least Category 1 and 2 hazards that were removed by either formal or informal action

Proposed new selective licensing scheme

As selective licensing schemes are time-limited to five years and Bexley’s current scheme ended on 31st August 2023, the proposal is to designate a new selective licensing scheme within the Belvedere ward.

The main aims for introducing a new selective licensing scheme in the Belvedere ward would be to address ASB and Property Conditions (i.e., to reduce gas/mould/damp/fire hazards within the property) within the privately rented sector, bringing the benefits referred to earlier in this section. The reasons for why Belvedere ward has been chosen are set out in Section 6. 

Evidence Base for the new scheme

The Council appointed external consultants to model our current housing to analyse the private rented sector.

• to introduce a selective licensing scheme, the area must have proportion of PRS that is significantly greater than the national average of 19% (source: English House Condition Survey, published December 2022)

• there are nine wards in Bexley that are above the national PRS average and so could be considered for selective licensing
• crook Log is only just above 19%, so it cannot be argued that it is significantly above the national average and should not be considered
• this means there are 8 wards that could be considered for selective licensing-Belvedere, Bexleyheath, Crayford, Erith, Longlands, Slade Green & Northend, Sidcup and Thamesmead East

The next stage is to consider those Wards with the highest PRS against the two identified objectives for a Selective Licensing Regime:

The first objective of the scheme is to improve property conditions

• 8% of PRS properties in Bexley have Category 1 hazards. To be included in a Selective Licensing Regime, the designated area should be either be the equal to or above this figure

• Erith (6%), Slade Green and Northend (6%) and Thamesmead East (4%) are all below this figure and so should not be considered for selective licensing because these areas are not suffering with poor property conditions and therefore do not meet the statutory requirement
• Belvedere, Sidcup, Crayford, Longlands and Bexleyheath remain as possible Wards for potential designation

The second objective of the scheme is to improve ASB in the affected areas

• the evidence (source – Met Police data) does not show Sidcup and Longlands Wards as having disproportionate ASB compared to other areas
• Belvedere, Bexleyheath and Crayford are amongst the wards most affected by ASB.
• However, when reviewing the ASB at 'Lower Super Output Area' level, the data highlights that the highest area within Crayford and Bexleyheath are the town centres with their high proportions of late-night venues and drinking establishments. The ASB in the town centres is likely due to people travelling to those areas and not necessarily due to people living directly within the areas. When looking at the ward areas away from the town centres, the ASB is significantly lower.  It is therefore unlikely that the elevated ASB in those Wards is a result of the PRS housing. Therefore, introducing a licensing scheme in these wards will have limited impact on addressing ASB
• Belvedere Ward shows elevated ASB across of the Ward

It is proposed that a new selective licensing scheme covers Belvedere ward:

Increase in people renting accommodation

• in the last decade, there has been an increase in people renting accommodation, which makes this scheme to improve conditions in the PRS and to regulate landlords even more important
• in 2021, based on data from the English Housing Conditions Survey 62.5% of households in England & Wales owned the accommodation they lived in, 37.3% rented their accommodation (20.3% private and 17.1% social) and 0.1% of households lived rent free. Since 2011, there has been a fall of ownership (almost 2 percentage points), an increase in renting (3 percentage points) and a fall in households living rent free (from 1.4% to 0.1%)
  Before introducing a selective licensing scheme, the council is required to carry out a consultation.  The consultation must run for a minimum of 10 weeks. After the consultation we must consider the key issues raised and provide a response

Before introducing a selective licensing scheme, the council is required to carry out a consultation.  The consultation must run for a minimum of 10 weeks. After the consultation, we must consider the key issues raised and provide a response.

Once we have analysed data on the profile of people in PRS within the Belvedere Ward - if we discover there isn’t sufficient data on any protected groups. We will consider how we can capture this information and use it to inform the development of this scheme.

Enforcement action will only be taken in line with the Housing Standards Enforcement policy, which means that action must be proportionate and reasonable. The first approach will be advice and guidance.

The intention is to survey tenants and residents within the proposed Selective Licensing scheme throughout the scheme’s implementation. This will help to monitor its impact on people with protected characteristics and provide equalities data which can be used to develop the scheme.

When taking enforcement action, we will look to collect equalities data on individual Landlords to understand if there is any impact on any protected group.