Landlords of more than 5,000 homes must register for a license and ensure their tenants have good quality housing or face prosecution, under a new Islington council scheme. 

All private landlords in three parts of the London borough – Finsbury Park, Tollington and Hillrise, where there are allegedly particular problems with poor conditions – must sign up and make their homes up to standard. 

Nearly a third of properties in Islington are privately rented, and the council says it is committed to doing everything it can to protect renters and ensure they have a safe place to call home. Around three in four tenants who responded to a consultation on the plans supported them. 

Council enforcement officers have been – in the local authority’s words – “deluged with thousands of complaints” about disrepair, damp and mould, inadequate facilities and safety issues. 

The selective licensing scheme, approved this week by the council, will cover 5,400 homes in the three wards, tripling the old Finsbury Park scheme it replaces. It applies to all privately rented houses or flats in the three wards that are occupied by a single person, two people sharing, or any number of people forming a single household.  

A council spokesperson says: “We want everyone in Islington to have a safe, decent and genuinely affordable place to call home, and we will stand up for private renters let down by the Government.  

“While the vast majority of Islington’s landlords are responsible and let good quality homes, renters have told us that many others are riddled with safety and other issues, while their rent continues to soar. 

“This new licensing scheme will mean landlords must do more in hazard hotspots to protect tenants – or face action from our enforcement team.”