Activists in the Generation Rent campaign says big city Mayors should “tackle the worst landlords and seize their properties.”

It also wants those Mayors to create what it calls “a fighting fund” to police the idea of interim management orders, taking control of the landlords’ private property.

In a new briefing to candidates standing for the Metro Mayor posts in May, Generation Rent claims that those who win will be able to ensure their city region’s renters have access to secure, quality and genuinely affordable homes.”

Therefore it’s briefing the candidates standing for the Mayor positions in the East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, London, North East, South Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire. And it says the winners must:

– Create a landlord and letting agent fines and prosecutions database;

– Work with the local police force to end illegal evictions through better police training and proper recording of incidents;

– Host a fighting fund to tackle the worst landlords and seize their properties;

– Ask national government for powers to regulate rents, fast-track developments and approve licensing schemes in your region;

– Buy previously privately rented homes and provide them for social tenants, reversing the flow of social housing into the hands of private landlords;

– Create a renters’ forum to involve private renters in decisions that affect housing and your wider work.

Specifically in the part about seizing properties, Generation Rent tells candidates at length: “Private renters rely on our local authorities to take action if our home is unsafe and landlords are failing to take action to meet minimum standards. Unfortunately, even when environmental health officers find hazardous conditions they don’t always take sufficient action to hold landlords to account. 

“This is partly due to limited budgets at local authority level which reduce their appetite to fine or prosecute landlords who flout the law, or take over their properties when they have been found unfit to provide housing. 

“The lack of legal action against criminal landlords emboldens them to continue to exploit and mistreat tenants. very often these landlords have portfolios that straddle local boundaries, so no single local authority can drive them out of business alone. 

“Metro Mayors should play a greater role in supporting local authorities, through coordination of enforcement policies, facilitating the sharing of intelligence, and providing institutional support for local authorities considering legal action against criminal landlords. This could include a fund to enable more prosecutions, and the infrastructure to manage homes seized through interim management orders – both of which local authorities lack on their own.”