The private rented sector plays a vital role in the Newcastle housing market. It has seen significant growth with the estimated number of private rented properties rising from 14,400 in 2001, to 22,000 in 2011, and to now over 24,000 properties. Many of the properties are over 70 years old and it is vital that this housing stock is maintained to a good standard.
With decreasing resources, there are many challenges faced in the private rented sector including anti-social behaviour (ASB) and area decline caused by neglect and poor environmental conditions. There is a significant cost to the Council in managing these issues and they are causing a decline in the environment, impacting community wellbeing and making these areas unattractive places to live, work and invest.
The introduction of a large-scale property licensing scheme will help provide tenants with a greater choice of safe, good quality and well managed accommodation. Improving the quality of private rented accommodation will lead to a better community and cross tenure relations, reduce anti-social behaviour and help to stabilise and improve local neighbourhoods.
A new digital solution for the licence application process will be developed, which aims to ensure landlords are offered an efficient, reliable system onto which the applications and all safety certification can be uploaded and stored.
Licensing of the private rented sector is not an end in itself; robust enforcement action is essential. Intelligence led enforcement will ensure resources are targeted on criminal landlords with a ‘light touch’ for the majority of the professional landlords. There will be 4 teams working together to deliver the property licensing schemes:
Application Team to process and determine the applications.
Compliance Team to audit properties and ensure compliance.
Enforcement Team to deliver a robust, intelligence led enforcement regime working with partners such as the police, HMRC immigration enforcement.
Support Team will include Tenant Support, ASB, Legal, IT and debt recovery officers.
The proposed conditions have been written to address poor property condition ASB. The conditions aim to establishing clear property and management standards. ( Selective Licensing conditions , Additional Licensing conditions )
Local Authorities must set the licence fee to ensure that schemes are self-financing and cover the costs of administration, further training and development and enforcement costs. The exact licence fee cannot be determined until consultation has been completed and the details of the scheme are confirmed. It is estimated that: ( Licensing Fees )
A Selective Licence will cost £650.
An Additional Licence will cost £750.
The fee will be split into 2 parts. The first part payable at the time of application, and the second part to be paid once the licence has been granted. A licence can be issued for up to a 5-year period. Professional landlords who apply for a licence and comply with the law will be issued a 5-year licence. Landlords who fail to apply or have a history of non-compliance will be issued a 1-year licence. This will ensure that criminal landlords are more closely regulated and pay more.
Please tell us how you feel about our current proposals by completing the questions below.
Landlord or agent - Comment on the scheme
The private rented sector plays a vital role in the Newcastle housing market. It has seen significant growth with the estimated number of private rented properties rising from 14,400 in 2001, to 22,000 in 2011, and to now over 24,000 properties. Many of the properties are over 70 years old and it is vital that this housing stock is maintained to a good standard.
With decreasing resources, there are many challenges faced in the private rented sector including anti-social behaviour (ASB) and area decline caused by neglect and poor environmental conditions. There is a significant cost to the Council in managing these issues and they are causing a decline in the environment, impacting community wellbeing and making these areas unattractive places to live, work and invest.
The introduction of a large-scale property licensing scheme will help provide tenants with a greater choice of safe, good quality and well managed accommodation. Improving the quality of private rented accommodation will lead to a better community and cross tenure relations, reduce anti-social behaviour and help to stabilise and improve local neighbourhoods.
A new digital solution for the licence application process will be developed, which aims to ensure landlords are offered an efficient, reliable system onto which the applications and all safety certification can be uploaded and stored.
Licensing of the private rented sector is not an end in itself; robust enforcement action is essential. Intelligence led enforcement will ensure resources are targeted on criminal landlords with a ‘light touch’ for the majority of the professional landlords. There will be 4 teams working together to deliver the property licensing schemes:
Application Team to process and determine the applications.
Compliance Team to audit properties and ensure compliance.
Enforcement Team to deliver a robust, intelligence led enforcement regime working with partners such as the police, HMRC immigration enforcement.
Support Team will include Tenant Support, ASB, Legal, IT and debt recovery officers.
The proposed conditions have been written to address poor property condition ASB. The conditions aim to establishing clear property and management standards. ( Selective Licensing conditions , Additional Licensing conditions )
Local Authorities must set the licence fee to ensure that schemes are self-financing and cover the costs of administration, further training and development and enforcement costs. The exact licence fee cannot be determined until consultation has been completed and the details of the scheme are confirmed. It is estimated that: ( Licensing Fees )
A Selective Licence will cost £650.
An Additional Licence will cost £750.
The fee will be split into 2 parts. The first part payable at the time of application, and the second part to be paid once the licence has been granted. A licence can be issued for up to a 5-year period. Professional landlords who apply for a licence and comply with the law will be issued a 5-year licence. Landlords who fail to apply or have a history of non-compliance will be issued a 1-year licence. This will ensure that criminal landlords are more closely regulated and pay more.
Please tell us how you feel about our current proposals by completing the questions below.
Additional materials