A controversial council claims that HMRC is working with its enforcement team because many landlords who avoid licensing schemes are also likely to be involved in other criminal activity.

Liverpool Labour council’s interim director of housing, Louise Harford, has written a blog saying: “We operate a selective licensing scheme for private rented properties in specific areas across the city to tackle poor property conditions and raise standards. Unlicensed landlords are considered non-compliant and not having a licence is a criminal offence. 

“Experience and intelligence tells us that patterns of non-compliance in one area means there is a high chance of other non-compliance in other areas, whether that’s with trading standards matters, tax, or other evasive behaviour which all too often, is linked to private rented properties. 

“To tackle this, our team has forged close relationships with key partner agencies such as Merseyside Police, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, HM Revenue and Customs and the Home Office.”

She continues: “It’s not just unlicensed landlords who are falling foul of the law here, many licensed properties are being used for criminal gains such as drugs, brothels and people trafficking too.

“A recent example of our partnership approach with Merseyside Police involved the exchanging of relevant intelligence to combat private housing being used to cultivate cannabis plants under the guise of being a private rented property, removing criminals from controlling this property.

“The enforcement team focus on those landlords who don’t have a licence but also those that do have a licence but aren’t complying with their license conditions, particularly around regular checks on their properties.”

Harford adds: “Six months in, the team are now making regular contributions to intelligence sharing and seeing the positive impact of joint operations. Our job now is to continue to grow our network, refine our processes and enhance our scope of enforcement to continue to disrupt rogue and criminal landlords, improving life for residents and tackling the wicked issues that make residents feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods.”

Some may consider it ironic that Liverpool council is coming down hard, given its own recent controversies.

Liverpool council has been in the news almost non-stop since the last government stepped in over the running of the authority, with an inspection in December 2020 following the arrests of a number of people involved with the council. 

The commissioners who assisted with the running of the council only last month handed the operation of services back to the council directly – three and a half years after the initial inspection – and even now a ‘statutory improvement board’ has been put in place to provide “oversight, advice and challenge” until March 2025.