Legal move may help Boris tackle housing
Boris Johnson is due back tomorrow
and will hopefully soon lead the country out of lockdown. Hopefully soon after
that his government will also tackle the
continued housing crisis.
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| Mayor Joe Anderson with Theresa May..."moral obligation" |
Prominent among
those activists is Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation, publishers of this blog.
For many years the
Federation has fought the absence of accountability in the affairs of the giant Liverpool-based
Riverside Housing Association.Hopefully this legal move will help that fight.
The move is by Liverpool City Council which has launched a legal
challenge against the government over the decision not to renew its private
landlord licensing scheme.
| Robert Jenrick...application turned down |
In January housing secretary Robert Jenrick turned down the council`s application to keep city-wide licensing running for a further five years, until 2025.
Joe Anderson, mayor
of Liverpool, said the council had “a moral obligation” to the city’s private
renters to ensure the scheme continues.
Merseyside Police,
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services and most residents who replied to a council
consultation backed extending the scheme.
Private landlords
and managing agents in Liverpool have required licences unless a statutory
exemption is applied for five years, but the scheme ends on 1 April following
the government’s decision to reject the council’s application to renew the
scheme.
Licences were in
force for 51,764 homes with 10,074 licence holders, the council said, with more
than 34,000 compliance checks finding issues with 65% of properties.
Council officers
uncovered 3,375 category one and two hazards through 1,971 inspections ranging
from fire safety issues to serious damp and mould and severe cold, the
authority said.
More than 300
successful prosecutions were brought forward through the scheme, leading to
fines and, in one case, a custodial sentence.
“The decision not
to renew the landlord licensing scheme was a disgrace – it defied logic and has
put the lives of some of our most vulnerable tenants at risk,” Mr Anderson
said.
“Over the past five
years, our officers have come across people whose landlords are happy to take
their rent while allowing them to live in appalling conditions with unsafe
electrics, gas supply and no fire doors to protect them in the event that a
blaze breaks out.
“The landlord
licensing scheme has enabled us to create a team to be able to hit the streets
every day and carry out inspections of properties and bring rogue landlords to
book.”
Several councils –
particularly in London – have started to run private landlord licensing schemes
in recent years.
