News
Housing Minister announces £5 million cash to help councils tackle rogue landlords
Councils across the country are to receive a £5 million cash boost to tackle rogue landlords in their area, Housing Minister Brandon Lewis announced today (22 January 2016).
Forty-eight councils will share the funding so they can take on the irresponsible landlords that force tenants to live in squalid and dangerous properties, making their lives a misery. Over half of all London Boroughs have been awarded additional funding with Newham Council receiving the highest allocation of £428,241, whilst Croydon Council received the lowest London allocation of £15,000.
The full cash allocations for the London Boroughs are listed below:
- Newham £428,241
- Enfield £360,000
- Brent £295,000
- Barking and Dagenham £250,000
- Waltham Forest £225,000
- Greenwich £175,000
- Lewisham £151, 378
- Ealing £150,000
- Islington £112,500
- Haringey £100,000
- Tower Hamlets £100,000
- Hammersmith and Fulham £91,000
- Kensington and Chelsea £91,000
- Lambeth £90,000
- Hounslow £67,500
- Hackney £36,400
- Southwark £31,200
- Croydon £15,000
Outside London, thirty councils have been awarded funding with Blackpool and Nottingham both receiving at least £150,000, whilst Pendle, Burnley and Derby all received less than £30,000. The full allocation is listed below:
Nottingham (£151,079), Blackpool (£150,000), Bristol (£135,000), Cornwall (£127,500), Hastings (£122,734), Hyndburn (£112,500), Liverpool (£112, 500), Peterborough (£112,500), Birmingham (£110,250), Calderdale (£100,000), Middlesbrough (£100,000), City of Lincoln (£96,071), Luton (£94,000), Slough (£90,000), Torbay Council (£90,000), Thanet (£88,737), Boston (£74,600), Leeds (£70,000), Newcastle (£70,000), North East Lincolnshire (£64,250), Salford (£63,952), Manchester (£60,000), Plymouth (£60,000), Ipswich (£56,250), Bradford (£45,000), Fenland (£44,500), Blackburn with Darwen (£39,375), Pendle (£22,500), Burnley (£18,200) and Derby (£13,161).
The funding will allow local authorities to carry out more raids, increase inspections of property, issue more statutory notices, survey more streets and to demolish sheds and prohibited buildings.
Mr Lewis said today’s funding is part of a package of measures that will ensure millions of hard-working tenants get a better deal when they rent a home. Significant progress has already been made, with £11.7 million distributed to councils to crack down on rogue landlords. Since 2011 nearly 40,000 inspections have taken place in properties with over 3,000 landlords facing further enforcement action or prosecution.
The measures will not hamper the vast majority of landlords who are diligent and responsible. Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said:
“Many private rental tenants are happy with their home and the service they receive, but there are still rogue landlords that exploit vulnerable people and force their tenants to live in overcrowded and squalid accommodation.
“We are determined to tackle these rogues which is why we are providing 48 councils with extra funding, so they can get rid of the cowboy operators in their area and bring an end to tenants living in miserable homes in the name of profit.
“We also want to raise the quality and choice of rental accommodation across the sector. The funding will ensure tenants know what level of service they can expect and have confidence to get help and take action if things go wrong.“
According to the government, the poor quality, overcrowded and dangerous accommodation let by rogue landlords can result in a ripple effect of wider problems in the local community such as noise problems; sanitation issues for whole roads; greater fire risk; council tax and benefit fraud and anti-social behaviour such as street drinking.
