On Monday this week the Local Government Association celebrated its 25th anniversary at its conference in Harrogate which ends today. Arguably the main event in terms of key note speeches was that of the levelling up secretary Michael Gove MP.

An "elderly" landlord in Leeds has been banned from operating private rented properties after a series of magistrates court convictions starting in 2018.

Earlier this month it was estimated there would be a £1.7 billion shortfall in local government finances due to inflation, payroll costs and cost of living increases. The Local Govt Association has now revised this upwards to £2.4 billion in 2022/23 and reaching £3.6 billion by 2024/25.

Amnesty International has described the criterion of being intentionally homeless, used by english local authorities when deciding whether or not they have a statutory duty to provide accommodation to someone who presents to them as being homeless, as being "outdated and cruel" and says that it should be scrapped.

Oldham council's new selective licensing scheme will go live next week on July 4th and any non exempt privately rented properties in the designated areas will need to be licensed from that date in order to be rented out.

East Cambridgeshire DC has announced that it is revising its private rented sector enforcement policy and that it has opened a public consultation on the revision saying that it "would particularly like to hear from anyone who rents privately, and from landlords, letting agents and landlord/tenant associations.".

In a criminal case currently (June 2022) being heard before Canterbury Crown Court a Thanet based letting agency and its staff are accused of an orchestrated campaign of violence and vandalism directed at tenants.

On 4th May we reported on a case - Rakusen v Jepson - heard in the Court of Appeal concerning rent repayment orders (RROs) and noted that, following that court's decision, the case would now go up to the Supreme Court. The NRLA (national residential landlords association) has announced that it has now applied to "intervene" in the appeal to the Supreme Court.

Additional licensing of smaller HMOs is to commence in West Bromwich on 1st July 2022 under a licensing designation made by Sandwell borough council.

A letting agent fined by Greenwich council for falsely claiming to belong to a client money protection scheme (CMP) was correctly fined £12,500 by the council according to a judge who said that the fine was "fair and proportionate". The tribunal hearing was held after the agent appealed against both the amount of the fine and its imposition in the first place.

“Reform” of the private rented sector (PRS) has been a long time coming, so long that it’s often seemed like every administration, no matter the political colour, has in the past been scared off by the size of the task.

Many of us are aware, not just from TV screen images of queueing ambulances outside hospitals but from our own personal experiences or those of family or friends, that our health service is under very serious strain. If more proof were needed then the news that, such is the backlog, 6.5 million people in England alone are awaiting hospital treatment, should be proof enough.

The Govt has now made available the white paper on rental reform that it announced on 16th July.

A new Govt report - Local Authority Enforcement in the Private Rented Sector - has highlighted significant capacity problems with private rented housing standards enforcement by resource strapped local authorities across the country.

Govt has announced that the much awaited rental reform white paper will be published today (with a view to the reforms being made into pre-election legislation possibly before or by March 2023).

The DLUHC has launched a consultation on Govt plans to require landlords across all tenures, including the private rented sector, to make reasonable adaptations to the "common parts" of rented properties (typically flats) where requested to by a tenant with disabilities.

An east London managing agent/property manager who converted 2 family homes into 8 flats without permission has been told he will face a 9 month prison sentence if he does not pay within 3 months £73,850 "in accrued proceeds of crime" from rental income on the flats. He must also pay an £8000 fine for breaching enforcement notices and £3,065 in costs.

After becoming aware, in July 2020, of concerns for a private rented sector tenant's welfare due to the behaviour of the tenant's landlord officers from Peterborough council took evidence from the tenant and 2 independent witnesses.

Despite concerns amongst residents about growth of HMO numbers, Gedling borough council seems unlikely to go ahead with plans to restrict numbers of HMO's saying that there is insufficient evidence for it to make an article 4 direction to restrict HMO growth in the Netherfield area in the borough.

A Camden letting agent and its sole director (who had recently been subject to an ASB injunction and a banning order) along with the landlord and owner of an unlicensed HMO operated by the agent have been fined £80,000 and £40,000.

Whether or not you think the question is rhetorical, it is the case that an element of professionalism is increasingly required of landlords operating in the private rented sector and that this requirement isn’t just coming from tenants and groups supporting or lobbying for tenant interests.

Local authorities will need to check the wording of their civil penalty notices following a case in which a private rented sector landlord has partially won an appeal against the imposition on him of two breach of licence condition civil penalties by Liverpool council.

The department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) has announced the bidding competition for local authorities with successful bids to access up to £700 million of funding available to upgrade "a significant amount of" their housing stock to EPC level C. Housing Associations will also be eligible to access this funding.

The national residential landlords association has called on Govt to unfreeze housing benefit rates which have been frozen since April 2021. The private sector landlord body has also referenced the "warning" from the office for budget responsibility that Govt spending on housing related benefits is set to rise by just 0.1% of GDP in the period up to 2025.

We need to advise all members of the Edlington Selective Licence Scheme that Doncaster Council is currently carrying out a compliance audit against selective licence conditions and have asked that Home Safe requests certain information from our members to determine whether the members are compliant with the terms of their licence.

The ministry of justice has announced that, following a consultation exercise on legal aid provision, a new legal aid support service - the housing loss prevention advice service (HLPAS) - will be launched backed by an extra £10 million per year funding package so that "more people will get access to free expert legal advice to give them the best chance of keeping their home when they fall in to difficult financial times".

The homelessness code of guidance which local authorities "must have regard to when exercising their functions" in relation to people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness has been updated. Whilst the code as a whole is too extensive and not suitable for use by private landlords, landlords in the PRS should be aware of the provisions dealing with eviction process situations, including section 21 notices.

An Ipswich landlord and his company, Francis Investments (East Anglia) Ltd, have been successfully prosecuted by Ipswich council and found guilty of 8 offences under the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime & Policing Act 2014.

Letting industry professional association Propertymark has said that a quarter of a million households have been lost from the private rented sector since 2017 and links this huge loss, in part, to the growth in the short term holiday lets market.

Throughout the last decade, Local Authorities have had to react and adapt radically to a series of almost existential (in some cases) challenges to how they provide services to their residents, businesses and communities. Those challenges won’t be fading away anytime soon and the importance of the role that local council’s play is evidenced in the way that much government support for sections of the public is being channelled through councils.

Wolverhampton council has successfully prosecuted a landlord for breaching HMO housing management regulations.

In September 2021 council officers entered the property with a warrant and found it to be in "intensive occupation"by tenants with separate rooms with locks on the doors, on separate contracts and with shared facilities but the property was no licensed as an HMO.