Ministers have been urged to scrap discretionary landlord licensing schemes in England once the national landlord database is fully operational. This call comes from Propertymark, which has published a position paper examining the cost, effectiveness, and enforcement of such schemes across England and Wales.
Propertymark argues that landlords and letting agents incur substantial costs and administrative burdens from these schemes, with selective licensing alone costing over £1,000 per property in some areas. The organisation suggests these fees do not always translate into improved enforcement against those responsible for poor housing.
The government has confirmed that the landlord registration service, the initial phase of the Private Rented Sector Database, is set to launch in the West Midlands on 15 December. This service will then be rolled out across England over the subsequent 12 months, eventually requiring all landlords actively letting property to register.
Propertymark is advocating for councils to utilise this national database as their primary source of landlord and property information. The organisation proposes that councils should not charge for data entry and document storage if these records are already held nationally. Additionally, Propertymark suggests a single national standard for applications and a Lead Authority model to reduce repeated checks for agents operating in multiple council areas.
The paper highlights that approximately two-thirds of English councils had not prosecuted a landlord in the previous three years, despite an estimated 300,000 complaints about property conditions annually. Furthermore, over 84% of councils have reported difficulties in recruiting environmental health professionals.