How would you describe your local organisation or business?

Third sector organisation

Overall would you say that the landlords of properties to be licensed act responsibly in letting, managing and maintaining their properties?

Mostly negative

Which licensing schemes do you agree with?

Both

Do you agree issuing a 1-year licence (rather than a 5-year licence) might be appropriate for non-compliant landlords?

Strongly agree

In your opinion, what impact will licensing have? (select all that apply)

• Allow council to hold landlords accountable

• Improve residents understanding of rights

• Improve private rented housing conditions

• Improve management standards

• Reduce flytipping and rubbish

• Reduce problems of noise

• Reduce neighbourhood anti-social behaviour

• Provide safe homes for tenants

Do you have any further comments on the impact of licensing on the management and condition of private rented properties?

This response is an addition to the previous one from Newcastle Green Party and should be read alongside/merged with it.

Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the licensing scheme or alternative action that can be taken to improve the private rented sector?

Expanding (B) risks on areas not covered by Selective Licensing, and especially the area just outside the proposed boundary. A long-term commitment to retaining core Council funding of the private rented service (alongside income from the licences) will be needed, to ensure that bad landlords do not buy up properties outside the Selective Licensing boundary and to support private renters in these areas not covered by Selective Licensing. This is a particular concern for areas just outside the boundary, such as a large part of Fenham. Close coordination with Government is needed to ensure approval of the full Selective Licensing boundary and to prevent a long delay between licensing of the self-designated area and wider approval from the Secretary of State.

Will these Licensing proposals have an impact on your business/organisation?

Positive

Please tell us why

As other comment

How would you describe your local organisation or business?

Third sector organisation

Overall would you say that the landlords of properties to be licensed act responsibly in letting, managing and maintaining their properties?

Mostly negative

Which licensing schemes do you agree with?

Both

Do you think that the licensing scheme will improve the private rented sector?

Yes

Do you agree issuing a 1-year licence (rather than a 5-year licence) might be appropriate for non-compliant landlords?

Strongly agree

In your opinion, what impact will licensing have? (select all that apply)

• Allow council to hold landlords accountable

• Improve management standards

• Reduce problems of noise

• Improve residents understanding of rights

• Reduce flytipping and rubbish

• Provide safe homes for tenants

• Improve private rented housing conditions

• Reduce neighbourhood anti-social behaviour

Do you have any further comments on the impact of licensing on the management and condition of private rented properties?

Newcastle Green Party welcomes both the Additional and Selective Licensing proposals for the following reasons. 1) To ensure that good landlords are not undercut by bad landlords. 2) To give greater security and confidence to private renters. 3) To enable renters to stay longer in the same place rather than moving regularly (this benefits the wider community by giving residents a greater stake in their neighbourhood, encouraging more involvement within the community, greater neighbourliness, less reliance on throwaway goods and furnishings and less litter and flytipping arising from frequent house moves). 4) A register of landlords will be an invaluable tool for regulating the sector. 5) The suggested fees will help fund inspections and regulatory actions as well as promotional activities, which will be crucial to getting the improvements needed. 6) The scheme will support tenants if they need to complain and reduce the power imbalance which allows some landlords to get away with substandard properties or poor management.

Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the licensing scheme or alternative action that can be taken to improve the private rented sector?

A) Coordination with community groups, universities, renters' groups like ACORN and wider resident communities are needed, to ensure that the scheme is effectively enforced and that bad landlords do not escape registration. B) See also separate comments on the boundaries, specifically the dangers associated with bad landlords clustering just outside the Selective Licensing boundary.

Will these Licensing proposals have an impact on your business/organisation?

Positive

Please tell us why

More stable and well supported communities are good for democracy!

How would you describe your local organisation or business?

Business

Overall would you say that the landlords of properties to be licensed act responsibly in letting, managing and maintaining their properties?

Positive

Which licensing schemes do you agree with?

None

Do you think that the licensing scheme will improve the private rented sector?

No

Do you agree issuing a 1-year licence (rather than a 5-year licence) might be appropriate for non-compliant landlords?

Disagree

In your opinion, what impact will licensing have? (select all that apply)

• Unlikely to have positive impact

• May increase rent

• No improvement to environment

• No improvement to property management

Do you have any further comments on the impact of licensing on the management and condition of private rented properties?

It will have no affect on the properties which are currently in a good condition and the Council have failed to explain how they will ensure rogue landlords register and if they do, how they will practically make them improve standards

Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the licensing scheme or alternative action that can be taken to improve the private rented sector?

The Council should have ensured that the Consultation was more widely publicised - many landlords will be totally unaware of it, especially ones who do not live in Newcastle and therefore have not made their views known - A local Newcastle Tenants group organised a facebook campaign to make sure they had vocal representatives at every consultation meeting and as they agree with the scheme(mistakenly thinking it will improve things) the Council was happy to let them speak and even offered them a private consultation - I am not aware of any such meeting being held with only landlords present.

Will these Licensing proposals have an impact on your business/organisation?

Negative

Please tell us why

Money currently spent on maintaining top quality rental properties will have to be spent on license fees

How would you describe your local organisation or business?

Business

Overall would you say that the landlords of properties to be licensed act responsibly in letting, managing and maintaining their properties?

Positive

Which licensing schemes do you agree with?

Additional Licensing

Do you think that the licensing scheme will improve the private rented sector?

No

Do you agree issuing a 1-year licence (rather than a 5-year licence) might be appropriate for non-compliant landlords?

Neither agree or disagree

In your opinion, what impact will licensing have? (select all that apply)

• Allow council to hold landlords accountable

• Improve residents understanding of rights

• No improvement to environment

• No improvement to property management

• Unlikely to have positive impact

• May increase rent

Do you have any further comments on the impact of licensing on the management and condition of private rented properties?

Licensing will cause an increase in rents as landlords try to recoup these new expenditures

Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the licensing scheme or alternative action that can be taken to improve the private rented sector?

Only use selective licensing in problem areas NOT a blanket the entire city to raise money

Will these Licensing proposals have an impact on your business/organisation?

Negative

Please tell us why

Extra expense. More running around after the council. More meetings.more hastle for law abiding landlords.

How would you describe your local organisation or business?

Business

Overall would you say that the landlords of properties to be licensed act responsibly in letting, managing and maintaining their properties?

Positive

Which licensing schemes do you agree with?

None

Do you think that the licensing scheme will improve the private rented sector?

No

Do you agree issuing a 1-year licence (rather than a 5-year licence) might be appropriate for non-compliant landlords?

Disagree

In your opinion, what impact will licensing have? (select all that apply)

• May increase rent

• Unlikely to have positive impact

• No improvement to environment

• No improvement to property management

Do you have any further comments on the impact of licensing on the management and condition of private rented properties?

Criminal landlords will ignore the scheme as they ignore many regulations now - licensing good landlords does not catch the bad ones - the council admit they don't know now who the bad ones are so why do they think they will suddenly all decide to apply for a license - they will just ignore the scheme

Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the licensing scheme or alternative action that can be taken to improve the private rented sector?

Yes - do not do anything or make any decisions about licensing until the Government have concluded and reported on their current review of Selective Licensing and have a look at other schemes available as detailed in the RLAs letter to you (Ti etc). It is my understanding that the Council will have to use all the money they make from licensing(about £14 million) on administering the scheme - this is £14million which could be spent by landlords on improving housing stock - for each property that we have to buy a £750 license for, that is £750 less we have to spend on the property - for Landlords who are currently compliant with all regulations and who manage their properties well, it is the tenants who will suffer - instead of replacing say a settee or a bed, we will have to buy a license to do exactly what we are currently doing - so not only will criminal landlords not comply, tenants of good landlords will suffer - no one wins !

Will these Licensing proposals have an impact on your business/organisation?

Negative

Please tell us why

All our properties are of a very high standard and we are very good Landlords. We will have to use money we would use for improvements to our properties on license fees - we are small scale landlords, not making vast profits from letting but would need to pay in excess of £7000 in one go - it might not be a huge sum per week over 5 years but will there be an option to pay it weekly over 5 years ?