News

New selective licensing scheme given the green light in Edgware

Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 - Harrow Council

At a Cabinet meeting on 21 January 2021, Harrow Council approved plans for a replacement selective licensing scheme in the Edgware council ward.

Map of Edgware selective licensing scheme 2021

A selective licensing scheme was previously implemented in the Edgware ward on 7 December 2015. The scheme ran for five years and ended on 6 December 2020.

A public consultation on plans to renew the selective licensing scheme took place from 5 June to 14 August 2020 (read here).

Public consultation attracted 24 responses

According to the Cabinet report, the public consultation attracted just 24 responses including a detailed submission by safeagent, a not for profit accrediting organisation for letting and management agents.

Of the other 23 responses, 18 were from residents who were evenly split in terms of whether the scheme should be renewed.

The other 5 responses were from landlords and managing agents, all of whom were opposed. There were no responses from tenants.

Due to the very low response rate, the council say the results were not statistically significant and no conclusions could be drawn.

Whilst the Cabinet report said all the feedback was captured in Appendix C of the report, London Property Licensing was unable to find any such information in this or any other Appendix attached to the report. It is unclear if the consultation results have been published. The report can be viewed on the council’s website, although the link was showing a security warning at time of publication so we have not shared it.

Evidence base showing its age

Rather than summarising the consultation results, Appendix C to the Cabinet report was a proposal for a Neighbourhood Improvement Scheme in three areas (including Edgware) and contained most of the evidence base to support scheme renewal.

Appendix C appeared to be a historic document. All the data sources relating to Edgware ward were from 2008 to 2013 and pre-dated the previous five year selective licensing scheme. In referencing the mandatory HMO licensing scheme, it said this was restricted to three storey properties whereas that changed in October 2018.

Just one table inserted in the Cabinet report contained data from 2015 to 2019. The council found that flytipping in Edgware had reduced 71% over the last five years with similar substantial reductions in complaints about abandoned vehicles, drug use, litter, rubbish and nuisance behaviour.

Edgware property licensing scheme to be renewed

Having considered the report, the Cabinet meeting approved plans for a replacement selective licensing scheme in the Edgware ward.

The scheme designation was made on 28 January 2021, comes into force on 28 April 2021 and will continue for five years until 27 April 2026.

Harrow Council have said they will start to accept new applications from 1 March 2021 and the licence application fee is being increased from £550 to £580 per property.

A free guide containing more information about property licensing in the London Borough of Harrow is available here.

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