Islington Additional and Selective Licensing Consultation – 13 January to 13 April 2025

Monday, January 13th, 2025 - Islington Council

Date: Monday 13 January to 13 April 2025

About: Islington Council has launched a consultation on plans to renewal their additional licensing scheme and expand their selective licensing scheme.

In Islington, 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. 

Most smaller HMOs need to be licensed under the council’s additional licensing scheme that applies borough wide.

The council also has a selective licensing scheme that extends licensing to all private rented properties in the Finsbury Park, Tollington or Hillrise council wards.

The council are consulting on proposed new additional and selective licensing schemes, as summarised below.

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 

Islington Council are proposing a new borough wide additional licensing scheme to be implemented when the current scheme ends on 1 February 2026. 

The scheme would extend licensing to most HMOs that fall outside the remit of mandatory HMO licensing. This will include HMOs occupied by three or four people and multi-occupied flats in purpose build blocks of flats where the block comprises three or more flats. 

The council are proposing 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 all of the flats are privately rented and under one single freehold ownership 

Proposed selective licensing scheme 

Islington Council are proposing a second selective licensing scheme that would extend licensing to all private rented accommodation occupied by a single household or two unrelated sharers in a further nine council wards.

The new council wards being proposed for selective licensing are Barnsbury, Caledonian, Tufnell Park, Mildmay, Highbury, Junction, Laycock, Canonbury and Clerkenwell.

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

The proposals will be discussed at the council’s next landlord forum on 26 February 2025. You can find out more about the forum and how to book a space here.

Islington Council is intending to hold further consultation events during the course of the consultation.

Share your views

Once you have studied the proposals, you can complete the proposed property licensing scheme questionnaire on the council’s website.

If you have any queries or need to request a paper questionnaire or any other format, please email islingtonprs@melresearch.co.uk, or phone MEL Research on 0800 0730 348.

The consultation closes on 13 April 2025.

The London Property Licensing free guide containing more information about the current property licensing schemes in Islington is available here.