With the Renters’ Reform legislation having been alleged, by some, to be missing in action - despite just having gone through its second reading in the House of Commons - the Government has suggested that it will, actually, be in tomorrow’s King’s Speech.

Illegal eviction was in both the national and the property press recently, following the news that the Metropolitan Police was to instruct its officers to “start arresting landlords who illegally and sometimes violently evict tenants.”

A "Serial slum landlord" has received Brent Council's first banning order whilst a "Dodgy landlord" and his agent in Dagenham are made to pay £22,000 with the landlord also ordered to pay a £15,000 rent repayment order.

Local authority selective licensing schemes, now increasingly being used by councils seeking to improve living conditions in their local private rented sector, can be a way of moving beyond the debate surrounding a recent byelection result (extensively covered elsewhere)

Selective licensing schemes have, in recent years, gained traction as a means to drive positive change in the private rented sector (PRS). However, the success of such schemes relies heavily on the effectiveness of their delivery.

The designation of new private rented sector selective licensing schemes by local authorities continued apace through 2022. Some schemes involved the licensing of tens of thousands of urban PRS properties.

The point is that all councils, one way or another, must be able to evidence their private rented sector (PRS) housing enforcement activity. This is even more so the case now, following the recent letter sent by Michael Gove MP to all council leaders and chief executives in England demanding details of their housing enforcement activity relating to damp and mould issues in both the social and private rented sector.

Housing standards, and the capacity of local authorities to enforce them, are rightly, but for all the wrong reasons, in the headlines at the moment. With this in mind, it’s instructive to look at what local authorities can achieve, in the private rented sector, via prosecutions and their attendant penalties. So, here are the top 5 housing enforcement cases of 2022.

Two just published documents could, perhaps, point to a way that local authorities could better persuade private rented sector (PRS) landlords that there are benefits to selective licensing schemes.

The “Outsourcing” behemoth Serco has an interesting “calling all landlords” message on its webpage. The company states that it is looking for “landlords, investors and agents” with rental properties available (in the North West, Midlands and the East of England) in all category types - HMO, single family, care homes, residential and former student accommodation.