Labour wants councils to have the power to implement landlord licensing across their full boundaries, without requiring government consent.

Currently councils wanting whole-authority licensing must seek the consent of the Housing Secretary; in the past this has led to conflict, such as when Liverpool council wanted to have a licensing scheme for every single one of its private rental properties.

In the end a compromise saw Liverpool license 45,000 out of 55,000 private rental units, but Labour’s shadow housing secretary – Lisa Nandy – says councils should have the power to do this without requiring the green light from the government.

This is one of a string of demands from Nandy, contained in a letter sent to the new Housing Secretary, Simon Clarke; these have now also become Labour policy following a debate yesterday at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool.

Labour says that if it wins the next General Election it will, within 100 days of wtaking office, implement many of the policies put forward in the Tories’ controversial Fairer Private Rented Sector White Paper but will also go much further in giving additional powers to tenants.

These include:

– End Section 21 evictions;

– Reduce eviction powers for landlords whose tenants are in arrears;  

– Introduce four month notice periods;

– Examine scheme for ‘portable’ deposits making it easier for tenants to switch properties;

– Allow tenants to have pets;

– Permit renters to make ”reasonable alterations to a property”;

– Create a national register of landlords;

– Initiate a legally-binding decent homes standard in the private rental sector.