London Mayor steps up fight against rogue landlords with call for more enforcement and bigger fines
|
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is stepping up his support for
London’s 2.4 million renters by funding a new qualification and
training for borough housing enforcement officers. These officers
will clamp down on rogue landlords and agents, support vulnerable
tenants and ensure rental properties are in decent condition and
meet safety standards. The Mayor is also asking Ministers to do
more – he wants the amount that tenants can claim back if their
home isn’t up to...Request free trial
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is stepping up his support for London’s 2.4 million renters by funding a new qualification and training for borough housing enforcement officers. These officers will clamp down on rogue landlords and agents, support vulnerable tenants and ensure rental properties are in decent condition and meet safety standards. The Mayor is also asking Ministers to do more – he wants the amount that tenants can claim back if their home isn’t up to scratch doubled, to two years' worth of rent, for the worst properties which pose a risk of death or serious injury. For London tenants paying the average rent of £1,425 a month this could mean a pay-out of up to £34,000 for the worst slum landlords. The Mayor has also repeated his call to be given the power to introduce rent controls in London, a demand even more important for tenants struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. A fifth of privately rented homes fail the Government’s Decent Homes standard and private renters in London are disproportionately likely to be defined as ‘vulnerable’. Despite this, many boroughs lack the resources to tackle malpractice, improve standards and support private renters due to years of budget cuts from Government. A 2019 report from the trade union Unison, which represents council staff, found that environmental health budgets per head of population had more than halved over the previous decade. This is compounded by the fact that boroughs find it increasingly difficult to hire and retain appropriately qualified staff. The new course, Advanced Professional Certificate in Private Sector Housing, aims to start to turn this tide. The course is a foundation degree level qualification delivered by the University of Middlesex and accredited by Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The aim of the course is to train those with little or no experience in environmental health or private rental housing up to the standard needed to carry out the duties of a private rented sector enforcement officer to tackle rogue landlords. The Mayor knows that council budgets have been squeezed over recent years, reducing their capacity to fund learning opportunities for their staff. The Mayor’s new environmental health qualification is a key part of his ‘Better Renting Programme’, which aims to build skills and capacity across the capital’s PRS enforcement teams. To date, 265 officers have been trained in courses commissioned by the GLA including tenancy sustainment, supporting tenants in domestic abuse cases, and gathering evidence for prosecutions. Learners studying the qualification spend time both in the classroom and working in borough enforcement teams as environmental health officers. They also develop tenancy sustainment skills to allow them to mediate and resolve issues between landlords and tenants and better support tenants facing evictions and potential homelessness. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “Every single Londoner deserves a secure, safe and comfortable home. Nearly a fifth of London’s private rented accommodation doesn’t meet basic standards and it is clear that more needs to be done to support tenants. “I want to see tougher penalties for rogue operators and this action can only come from the Government. Poor housing conditions and exploitative rents have an awful impact on both THE physical and mental health of tenants and these actions need to have consequences. With the cost-of-living spiralling, Londoners also need the government to give us the power to bring in rent controls which may’s election gave us a clear mandate for. “I also want to see boroughs empowered to stand up for tenants. This new qualification will give councils across London the workforce and expertise to mediate disputes, enforce standards and crack down on the rogues who give the many honest operators in the sector a bad name.” Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Chief Executive, Dr Phil James said: “We are delighted to work together with the Mayor of London to develop this important qualification. It should give London councils the route to train up members of their teams with the skills needed in order to support tenants, do more inspections of rented properties and to take more enforcement actions against unscrupulous landlords, who rent out dangerous and unhealthy homes in the city. “Unfortunately, there are currently not enough qualified Environmental Health Practitioners for local authorities to recruit. We have been working hard to change this, both through our public facing campaigns like #ChooseEnvironmentalHealth, where we have been generating new interest in the profession, and our call to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to create a national apprenticeships fund for local authorities, to help local areas fund the cost of training up more environmental health practitioners.”
Cllr Louise Mitchell, Cabinet Member for Housing and
Homelessness Reduction at Waltham Forest Council,
said: “Every private rental tenant in London
deserves to enjoy living in peace, comfort, and security. We work
hard to take action against the minority of landlords who do not
take their responsibilities to their tenants seriously, and we
welcome the new support from the Mayor to train more staff to
help us clamp down on rogue landlords and agents. NOTES TO EDITORS Advanced Professional Certificate in Private Sector Housing is delivered by the University of Middlesex and accredited by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. More information about the course can be found here: https://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/cpd/advanced-private-sector-housing-regulation Topics covered on the new course include:
The most recent English Housing Survey can be found here. A rent repayment order (RRO) requires a landlord or agent who has committed an offence against their tenant to repay up to a maximum of 12 months’ rent or housing benefit. RROs do not depend on the landlord being convicted of a crime and are instead issued by a tribunal. They can be issued for a wide range of offences including:
The Mayor also wants to see the maximum potential RRO doubled for landlords who fail to comply with an improvement notice to fix the most severe defects that put tenants at risk of death or serious injury. The Mayor of London’s Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker can be found here: https://www.london.gov.uk/rogue-landlord-checker |