Section: Private Sector Housing

Most councils have not issued any penalties against private landlords

Posted 03.08.21
National Residential Landlords Association: Further reading

Over half of local authorities in England have not issued any civil penalties against rogue or criminal landlords in the last three years - according to a new survey.

Since April 2017, councils across England have been able to issue civil penalties of up to £30,000 for a range of housing offences.

Income received can be re-invested by local authorities to help finance further enforcement against criminal operators who cause harm to tenants and give private renting a bad name.

Despite this, the results of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from the National Residential Landlords Association show that between 2018/19 and 2020/21, only 130 local authorities in England out of 275 replying to the survey (47%) had issued any civil penalties.

Most had used only a handful with 71% of all civil penalties issued by just seven per cent of the local authorities.

40% of councils that had issued civil penalties had issued between just one and five over the past three years.

In total, fewer than 3,200 civil penalties were issued over the last three years by the local authorities responding to the survey. This is despite Ministers suggesting during the passage of the legislation to introduce them, that there may be 10,500 rogue landlords in operation.

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