A council claims “hundreds of residents have been made safer in their homes” thanks to a licencing regime.

Sheffield council insists the scheme has helped remove safety hazards from nearly 500 properties between 2018 and last year.

The Selective Licensing designation to the south and south east of the city centre meant that where hazards were identified, the landlords carried out works to remove them to ensure tenant safety and compliance with licence conditions.

During the scheme’s five-year duration, 472 rental properties were licenced. Inspections identified 492 safety hazards in 46 per cent of those properties – 29 per cent of which were related to fire safety.

With those hazards rectified, around 800 people now live in safer homes, the council insists.

Some 65 financial penalties were served on landlords and seven prosecutions taken for offences under the Housing Act 2004.

A spokesperson for the council says: “This was a complicated scheme that required a lot of hard work to get these successes. It’s brilliant to know this has resulted in people being safer in their homes.

“Safety at home is vitally important and as well as the obvious physical benefits can also add to people’s wellbeing with the knowledge their homes are more secure.

“We’d like to thank all those we worked with to make this possible. I’m proud of the work that has been done and proud of the successes they have achieved.”