Nearly 17,000 Applications Over First Year Of PRS Improvement Scheme

Just over a year ago, Nottingham city council introduced a new housing licensing scheme to help tackle issues such as antisocial behaviour to poor property conditions – and it has seen nearly 17,000 applications so far. “This scheme has already helped to improve rented properties across the city, and it is important that landlords get the homes they own licensed and work with the council to help improve renting standards in the city and make lives better for tenants living in these homes,” said Cllr Linda Woodings, council portfolio holder for planning, housing and heritage. The scheme runs alongside the other licensing initiatives schemes operating for HMOs. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/nearly-17000-applications-over-first-year-of-prs-improvement-scheme/

Nottingham City Council Accused Of Trying To 'Ban Homelessness'

A human rights group has accused Nottingham City Council of attempting to "ban homelessness". Liberty claims a new Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) will mean people are forbidden from giving food to rough sleepers. Lara ten Caten from the group said the PSPO, which is under consultation, suggests homeless people obstructing doorways could be fined. However, the council has denied targeting the homeless. It said the PSPO will be used instead to tackle businesses and charities distributing nuisance leaflets and flyers. The authority said it was looking to manage anti-social behaviour within a "restricted zone" in the city centre. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-45717977

Plan To Introduce Landlord Licence Gets The Green Light

Controversial plans which could see landlords in Nottingham have to sign up for licences has been officially approved by the council, and the matter has now been sent to the central government. The scheme aims to improve housing standards in the city’s private rented sector, and after extensive consultation with landlords and tenants, the proposals have changed considerably. The council's executive board voted unanimously to approve the revised selective licensing scheme. When the scheme was first announced, in February, the council said it was being proposed to raise standards, reduce anti-social behaviour, and tackle rogue landlords. Read more on the Nottingham Post website.

NLA Warns Landlords To Get A Licence Or Face A £20k Fine

The National Landlords Association is encouraging landlords in Ashfield to become accredited to take advantage of discounted property licensing fees. From May 1, landlords in Ashfield will require a licence for every property they let, or they could be subject to a £20,000 fine. The scheme has been set up to tackle problems identified by the Council as poor quality of rented properties, poorly behaved tenants and anti-social behaviour. However, landlords will receive a £100 discount when applying for licences, so long as they are accredited with an appropriate body. The full cost of a licence per property is £350 and is valid for five years. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

Rough Sleepers Being Targeted By Legal Powers Designed For ASB

Councils across England and Wales are targeting rough sleepers with antisocial behaviour measures such as PSPOs and Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), according to new research from Crisis, the national homelessness charity. Drawing on a survey of local councils, the report shows how more than one in three (36%) are targeting rough sleepers with enforcement measures. Of these councils, common measures included Criminal Behaviour Orders (45 per cent), Dispersal Orders (35 per cent), Public Space Protection Orders (17 per cent) and actions under the Vagrancy Act (27 per cent). Read more on the Crisis website.

MP Warns Of Housing Strain Caused By Holiday Lets

Illegal sub-letters and property magnates are taking advantage of Airbnb and similar-style sites to rake in tax-free cash, an MP says. Labour's Karen Buck said renting out properties for short holiday lets can produce up to three times the income of more traditional flat rentals. Growth in the industry is also contributing to a loss of residential accommodation, she told the Commons. She wants the 90-day limit for renting out homes each year to be enforced. Ms Buck says the sharing phenomenon is putting a strain on housing stock, neighbours and cash-strapped councils that are having to deal with anti-social behaviour arising from noise and waste issues, over-crowding and a whole range of other forms of disturbance. Read more on the BBC website.

More London Authorities Open Licensing Consultations

Newham and Bexley have become the most recent London authorities to start licensing consultations. Both authorities have cited supply and demand problems and increased anti-social behaviour as the need for a change in licensing. The introduction of a licensing scheme will require the condition of a property to comply with specific standards relating to fire safety, provision of amenities as well as space standards alongside the licence holder will also be required to be deemed suitable by the local authority. Bexley is considering implementing a selective licensing scheme for private rented properties due to the high number of complaints the council receives of anti-social behaviour or nuisance behaviour per property. Read more on the RLA website.

One In Ten Local Councils Are Criminalising Homeless People

One in ten local councils are using powers created to prevent anti-social behaviour to criminalise homelessness, new figures show.  Freedom of information requests to local authorities by the VICE News website found that 36 local authorities were targeting rough sleepers with Public Space Protection Orders. PSPOs are local regulations which can be used by councillors to ban anything with a “detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality”. In 36 of 78 cases the orders are being used to make activities common amongst homeless people illegal, an analysis by the website shows. Read more on the Independent website.

Landlord Licensing Scheme Rejected By Secretary Of State

The government has barred a London council from introducing a borough-wide licensing scheme for private landlords. Communities Secretary Greg Clark has turned down Redbridge Council’s application to bring in a borough-wide licensing scheme to tackle poor landlords and anti-social behaviour. The minister declined the application because it did not provide evidence of significant and persistent anti-social behaviour across the borough as a whole, as required under the Housing Act 2008. Redbridge’s scheme, which was consulted on last November, would have required all private landlords in the borough to pay £500 for a five-year license. The council is now considering whether to consult on a smaller scheme. Read more on the East London Guardian website.

Plan Scrapped To Fine Homeless Who Fail To Use Accommodation

Plans to fine rough sleepers in Oxford have been scrapped after the city council decided to amend a proposal to tackle anti-social behaviour. Homeless people who fail to use indoor accommodation offered to them were originally on a list of people a Public Spaces Protection Order would target. A petition against this idea had been signed by 72,000 people, stating the order would "criminalise" homelessness. The council said it had concluded there were better ways of tackling the issue. Read more on the BBC website.

New Law A Charter for Anti-Social Tenants

A Government amendment to the Deregulation Bill raises the prospect of landlords being unable to swiftly remove tenants who are failing to pay their rent or committing anti-social behaviour. Under the amendment, landlords would have a Section 21 notice suspended when a tenant makes a written complaint about conditions in a property and a local authority then serves a notice to improve on the landlord. This would make it almost impossible for a landlord to regain possession of their property when a tenant commits anti-social behaviour or fails to pay their rent and the Section 21 notice is served at the same time as the local authority decides to take action on the complaint raised by the tenant. Read more on the Residential Landlords Association website.

Anti-Social Behaviour in Social Housing - Commons Library Standard Note

This note gives an overview of the remedies available to social landlords to deal with tenants who exhibit anti-social behaviour; a term which covers a disparate and broad range of conduct from tensions between neighbours to violent and intimidatory behaviour. Benchmarking work carried out by HouseMark (July 2012) estimated that social landlords in England and Wales dealt with around 300,000 reported cases of anti-social behaviour in 2011/12 at a cost of £300m. Download a copy of the note from the House of Commons website.

Council Becomes First To Use New Anti-Social Powers To Evict Tenants

Oldham Council is believed to have become the first local authority in the country to use new anti-social behaviour powers to remove tenants from a property, after it was used as a drugs den.  The new rules came into force recently and mean that ASB incidents can be dealt more swiftly by the courts, leading to quicker evictions. Tameside Magistrates' Court approved a three-month premises closure for the property after community safety officers from social landlord First Choice Homes Oldham and police received numerous complaints from tenants about ASB and criminality. Read more on 24dash.

ASB a Consequence, Rather Than a Cause of Homelessness

Anti-social behaviours such as drug and alcohol abuse are often the consequence, rather than the cause of homelessness, according to a series of studies from Northumbria University. The studies suggest that contrary to common belief, unexpected life events could lead to anyone becoming homeless.  Researchers looked at the life histories and causes of homelessness of over 80 people in Newcastle. They spoke to homeless people about their experiences, and staff from local authorities and hostels and support services in the area about the management of homelessness.  They found evidence of ASB on the part of homeless people, with high incidences of drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems, violent behaviour, familial breakdown, negative social networks, unemployment and dependency on benefits, begging, sex work and crime. However, the research indicated that these problems were often caused by homelessness itself. Read more on the Northumbria University website.

Troubled Families Programme Expanded To Help Younger Children

Eric Pickles has announced details of an expansion of the government’s Troubled Families programme. Work will begin this year in 51 of the best performing areas, ahead of a national 5 year programme from 2015 to help more troubled families who cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds per year without intervention. Recent research shows that troubled families that have been worked with so far have an average of 9 serious problems such as truancy, crime, anti-social behaviour, worklessness and domestic violence. As well as expanding from working with school-age children to those under 5, the wider programme will also have a particular focus on improving poor health, which new data published today highlights is a particular problem in troubled families, with 71% having a physical health problem and 46% a mental health concern. Read more on the CLG website.

War on Empty Homes Being Won Across Region

The war on empty homes – blamed for blight and housing shortages - is slowly being won across the region, new figures suggest. The number of vacant properties in the North-East and North Yorkshire fell by almost 4,000 last year, to 45,846, a reduction of 8.5 per cent. And there has been much faster progress in tackling long-term empty homes, a decline from 17,816 to 15,243 – a fall of 14.4 per cent. Those homes, without occupants for more than six months, cause the greatest concern, because they fall into disrepair and attract anti-social behaviour. Read more on the Northern Echo website.

Councils Bar 113,000 from Waiting Lists

126 English local authorities use new powers to reduce waiting lists. More than 100,000 people have been struck off or denied access to waiting lists since councils were given new powers to prevent people from applying for social homes. Research by Inside Housing found 126 English local authorities have used powers granted by the Localism Act to change their allocations policies. Seventy-seven councils that provided detailed figures informed 113,049 people that they no longer qualify for social housing for reasons including a lack of connection to the local area and anti-social behaviour. Using powers under the Localism Act 2011, councils have since June 2012, bumped an average of nearly a third of applicants off their social housing waiting lists. Read more on Inside Housing.

Landlords- Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will introduce a national register of landlords; and what steps his Department is taking to make it easier for local authorities to introduce a licensing scheme for landlords. 

Kris Hopkins: The overwhelming majority of landlords provide a good service and the Government does not want to impose unnecessary additional costs on them. We have no plans to introduce a national register which would be a financial burden on all landlords estimated at £40 million per year. Those costs would be passed on to tenants through higher rents. Local authorities can already introduce a licensing scheme where an area is suffering from anti-social behaviour and/or low housing demand. We recently published a discussion paper, “Review of Property Conditions in the Private Rented Sector”, which invited views on ways in which licensing can be made more effective and proportionate.

Reduction in Landlords Seeking Vacant Possession

The National Landlords Association (NLA) reports a 43 per cent reduction in the number of landlords seeking vacant possession of their properties year on year.  According to the NLA’s Quarterly Landlord Panel, 14 per cent of landlords sought vacant possession of their properties in 2013 compared to some 20 per cent of landlords in 2012. In addition, the number of landlords reporting antisocial behaviour from their tenants has fallen three percentage points (17%) year on year; down from 18 per cent in 2012 to 15 per cent in 2013. Read more on the NLA website.

Amendment 'Stigmatising' Social Tenants Passes In House of Lords

A heavy defeat for the government in the House of Lords paved the way for an amendment which ‘stigmatises’ social tenants. Following pressure from civil liberties campaigners, the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill was amended to define anti-social behaviour as conduct capable of causing ‘harassment, alarm or distress’.’ But when a social landlord applies for an injunction, the test will be behaviour ‘capable of causing noise and annoyance’, meaning those living on or near social housing can be penalised for a lower threshold of behaviour. Read more on Inside Housing.