‘A very fair point’: Gove agrees portal will render local licensing obsolete
Housing Secretary Michael Gove agreed with NRLA Chief Executive Ben Beadle that there will be no need for licensing one the Government’s new Property Portal is introduced.
The exchange took place following a speech on the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC) long-term plan for housing at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) yesterday.
In his speech Mr Gove announced a planning crackdown at local authority level in a last-ditch attempt to get delayed developments off the ground.
In a question-and-answer session after the speech, Ben addressed Mr Gove, saying: “You have gone on record recognising that the majority of landlords do a great job by their tenants and provide decent homes.
“But we, like you, want to see bad landlords exited from the sector, so that tenants and local authorities can easily identify decent homes and decent landlords to work with. We hope this will be done via the property portal and the decent homes standard forthcoming.
“Given the added reliance and pressures that you have set out today on local authorities desperate for funding, if we have an effective property portal, why do we need selective licensing schemes as well?”
To which Mr Gove replied: ‘That is a very fair point, Ben.’
The property portal proposals are included with the Government’s Renters (Reform) Bill and will require landlords to register their properties online and evidence compliance; a move Ministers argue will free up time and resources in the courts and local authorities, allowing them to spend more time dealing with serious cases.
Many licensing schemes are justified on the basis that local authorities need information on their PRS so that they can enforce against rogue landlords, schemes which often have substantial fees attached.
Given the portal will be accessible by local authorities, the NRLA is calling on the Government to scrap licensing once such schemes are in place and will be seeking a meeting with DLUHC in the new year to discuss the issue further.
More information
You can watch the exchange between Ben and Michael Gove below, and the full speech can be watched here.
For more information on the NRLA campaign on Renters Reform click here.
