A council in the unusual position of having its landlord licensing proposals rejected by the government says it’s pondering its next steps.
In June Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Croydon council it had failed to provide any evidence of a housing strategy in which landlord licensing played any part.
At the time an exclusive story on the Inside Croydon website said the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and its civil servants have been “devastating in their critique of Croydon’s renewal submission.”
The council is reported to be facing a £22m ‘black hole’ because expected landlord licensing fees will not be recovered.
Now the council has written to private landlords in its patch to say that it is considering what to do next.
The letter says: “On the 20 July 2020 Croydon Council made an application to the government asking for confirmation of two licensing designations in the borough.
“On the 8 June 2021 the council heard that the government had refused the applications from Croydon.
“We are now considering the government’s response before deciding on any next steps in the months ahead.
“In the meantime we will be able to continue to investigate and act on local private tenants’ concerns by using Housing Act powers, but without the scale of proactive inspections and support that was made possible under our previous scheme.
“Mandatory houses in multiple occupation (properties occupied by five or more people in two or more households that share kitchen or bathroom facilities) are still required to be licensed.”
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The fact they are continuing as normal without the license tax/theft., proves that the so called scheme was never needed in the first place.
“The council is reported to be facing a £22m ‘black hole’ because expected landlord licensing fees will not be recovered.“
This statement proves the purpose of landlord licensing scheme.
Fraud.
Croydon's financial mess is well documented by independent financial investigators as mis-management of Tax-payers funds in failed projects ( sound familiar ? )
It has absolutely Nothing to do with Licensing, other than Croydon were hoping the revenue raised could in some part be their ' Golden egg '
Oh dear, how sad, Never mind.
Maybe, - just maybe,
the Government are waking up and smelling the coffee .. that Licensing is a blunt blunderbus that just increases rent and doesn't target the very few criminal landlords it espouses as its aim. ?
How can you be facing a £22 million black hole based on revenue you've never had before.
Sounds more like bad management to me!
@ Gordon,
It WAS, the investigators found on a mammoth scale. There are so many errant Councils, Liverpool, Nottingham etc mis-using Tax-payers money. I subscribe to the Tax-Payers Alliance, who stand up against these issues.
The Govt only intervene in the very few and most serious cases ( as in sending in supervisory management to Liverpool, Council leader arrested etc )
councils spend the money before receipt--standard practice with opm
No talk about to black hole they made for us.
I thought that all the revenue from licencing had to be ring fenced and used solely for the purpose of administering the scheme? If that is so then Croydon council have no real loss of revenue.
boris is pushing for elected mayor for croydon--it will be labor
he also wants a 4th mp for croydon--why
ps croydon has £200 million deficit
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