A consultation is underway into the extension of yet another private landlord licensing scheme for a further five years.
Since March 2018 Sefton council on Merseyside has had a Selective Licensing scheme for private landlords in the Bootle area. There is also an Additional Licensing regime for HMOs in parts of Seaforth, Waterloo, Brighton-Le-Sands and central Southport.
With the current schemes due to end next February Sefton council is now carrying out a 12-week consultation on its proposal to extend them until February 2028.
Councillor Trish Hardy, the council’s housing spokesperson, says: “Introducing the current licensing schemes has enabled Sefton council to work with private landlords in the areas covered to improve their standards of management.
“This, in turn, has resulted in improved living conditions for their tenants as well as improvements for the wider areas, such as reduced anti-social behaviour.
“By extending the scheme for a further five years, we want to build on this success and bring about further benefits for landlords, tenants and those communities.”
The council also claims that the current licensing system has allows “serious health and safety hazards [to be] removed from over 300 licensed properties. These includes issues relating to fire safety, electrical hazards, damp and mould and excess cold.
It adds that although nearly 60 per cent of the properties inspected did not initially meet the required housing standards, 98 per cent of these were subsequently improved.
Some 81 landlords have received Civil Penalty Fines for failing to licence licensing their properties.
Hardy continues: “Our view is that by renewing these schemes we can deliver benefits for tenants, landlords and the neighbourhoods they cover and the costs for landlords would start from just 2.67 per week.
“Of course, we want local people’s input before moving forward so would urge anybody likely to be affected, whether they rent a property, they’re a landlord or live in the proposed areas, to take part in the consultation.”
Council will pay part of tenants’ rent to private landlords