Consultation
Barking & Dagenham Additional and Selective Licensing Consultation – 16 February to 26 April 2024
Friday, February 16th, 2024 - Barking & Dagenham Council
Date: Friday 16 February to Friday 26 April 2024
Barking & Dagenham Council has launched a consultation on plans to implement two new property licensing schemes.
In Barking & Dagenham, Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) need to be licensed if they are occupied by five or more people and fall within the mandatory HMO licensing scheme.
There is also a borough wide selective licensing scheme that extends licensing to properties occupied by a single household or two unrelated sharers. This scheme also covers some small HMOs that fall outside the remit of the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. The selective licensing scheme ends on 31 August 2024.
The council are consulting on plans to implement new additional and selective licensing schemes throughout the borough.
Before making a decision, the council wants to hear from tenants, landlords, managing agents, residents, business owners, community organisations and anyone else who may be affected by the proposed schemes.
Proposed additional licensing scheme
Barking & Dagenham Council are proposing a new borough wide additional licensing scheme.
The scheme would extend licensing to most HMOs that fall outside the remit of mandatory HMO licensing. This will be mostly HMOs occupied by three or four people.
The council have decided to include section 257 HMOs within the scheme. These are properties that have been converted into flats where less than two thirds of the flats are owner occupied and the conversion into flats does not comply with the relevant building regulations. The council are proposing to restrict the licensing of such properties to situations where the building is three or more storeys in height, contains three or more flats and the building and all the flats are under the same ownership.
Proposed selective licensing scheme
Barking & Dagenham Council are proposing a new borough wide selective licensing scheme which would extend licensing to all private rented accommodation occupied by a single household or two unrelated sharers.
The selective licensing scheme would be split into three designations:
Designation 3 covering the council ward of Eastbrook & Rush Green would be designed to tackle issues of anti-social behaviour.
Designation 2 covering the council wards of Abbey, Gascoigne and Northbury would be designed to tackle issues of deprivation and poor property conditions.
Designation 1 covering all other council wards would be designed to tackle issues of deprivation, poor property conditions and anti-social behaviour.
The intention is that both schemes would run for a period of five years.
You can find out more information about the business case for the new licensing scheme, and what the scheme entails, on the council’s website.
Public meetings
Public meetings have been arranged to discuss the proposals, with options for in-person or online events, as listed below.
- Online Public Meeting: Tuesday 12 March, 6pm to 7pm
- Online Public Meeting: Thursday 14 March, 12.30pm to 1.30pm
- In-person Public Meeting: Wednesday 3 April, 6pm to 7pm at Barking Town Hall, 1 Clockhouse Avenue, Barking IG11 7LU
- In-person Public Meeting: Friday 5 April, 12.30pm to 1.30pm at Barking Town Hall, 1 Clockhouse Avenue, Barking IG11 7LU
You can visit Eventbrite to book a space at any of these events.
We understand a further dedicated event is being arranged for landlords and agents. We will share details of that event once details have been confirmed.
Share your views
Once you have studied the proposals, you can complete the proposed property licensing scheme questionnaire on the council’s website.
You can also send any feedback about the consultation proposals directly to the council via email prplconsultation@lbbd.gov.uk, or phone 020 8724 8898.
The consultation closes on Friday 26 April 2024.
Our free guide containing more information about the current property licensing schemes in Barking & Dagenham is available here.
