- Government announces additional £4 million funding for
councils to tackle criminal landlords
- This new funding will ensure good landlords are supported to
thrive, helping councils develop new ways to identify and stamp
out poor landlords
- Builds on action taken last year which supported over a
million tenants – this year doubling the funding to reach more
people across the country
Councils across the country will be able to access almost £4
million in new funding, as part of a crackdown on criminal
landlords, Housing Secretary has announced today (4
November 2019).
This will support councils who can bid for a slice of
funding to step up enforcement action against landlords
who break the law and provide inadequate service to their
tenants.
Even though most landlords provide quality homes for their
tenants, a small minority continue to break the law and offer
inadequate or unsafe housing, leaving young families and
vulnerable people feeling trapped.
The funding will be used to allow good landlords to thrive,
helping millions of hard-working tenants renting privately
get the homes they deserve, ensuring that those who follow the
rules are not unfairly disadvantaged and creating a housing
market that works for everyone.
This is the second year of this pioneering fund. Last year over
£2 million of funding was shared amongst 56 projects – this
reached 100 councils which together are home to over a million
households living in the private rented sector.
Housing Secretary said:
It’s unacceptable that a small minority of unscrupulous
landlords appear to be breaking the law and providing homes
which fall short of the standards that tenants rightly expect.
Everyone deserves to live in a home that is safe and secure,
and the funding announced today will help to further strengthen
councils’ powers to crack down on criminal landlords and drive
up standards in the private rented sector.
We have given local authorities strong powers to force landlords
to make necessary improvements to a property. They can use a
range of measures, including fines and banning orders, to tackle
criminal landlords.
This funding helps councils to capitalise on their strengthened
powers, last year being used to train hundreds of inspection
officers and create new technologies to make sure inspectors
spend their time taking action to improve the sector, not stuck
behind a desk.
Last year the funding helped councils uncover hundreds of
poor-quality homes and ensured that vulnerable tenants know they
will be supported.
For example, last year, Burnley received over £60,000 to carry
out proactive inspections of rented homes in the area, allowing
them to reach vulnerable tenants who are less likely to report a
problem to their council.
The council found and fixed over 100 hazards across the
properties they inspected. In some cases the funding helped
tenants who were trapped in properties which posted a serious
risk to their safety – meaning they could be rehoused in quality
accommodation.
We want to support a thriving private rented sector across the
country. Through the funding announced today will want to
encourage councils to share best practice of enforcement action
and examples of inventive approaches that can be adopted in
councils nationwide to drive quality and stamp out bad landlords.
