CIEH reaction to the Housing and Planning Bill

“The vast majority of landlords provide good quality accommodation but sadly there are those who do not. We therefore welcome the Government’s proposals in the Bill to tackle rogue landlords and improve conditions in the private rented sector, including extending the circumstances in which rent repayment orders can be used, banning orders and a national database of landlord prosecutions, something we have called for over a number of years. 

“Poor housing conditions can have damaging consequences for tenants’ physical health and mental wellbeing and the new landlord database will include details of all landlords with criminal convictions, as well as prosecutions for housing offences, not just repeat offenders, which suitably reflects the serious nature of supplying appalling accommodation.

“That said, we remain unconvinced about the introduction of fixed penalty notices for housing offences as this risks trivialising serious offences and could be misused by authorities seeking to raise additional income. There already is a robust procedure to prosecute rogue landlords and we would support setting a significant fine for repeat offenders as well as giving the courts the power to ban repeat offenders from managing or letting properties for a defined period.”

Bob Mayho added: “There are a number of concerns we have on the Government’s right to buy proposals as they unfairly impact on the vulnerable and people most in need of good quality housing, as well as have an adverse effect on certain areas of the country, further exacerbating regional and national inequalities.

“There is the real danger that if this scheme goes ahead it could restrict in the long term the availability of affordable homes, adversely impact local authorities’ ability to house families in desperate need of accommodation and may cause councils to sell off their “best” homes in order to fund the sale of right to buy properties. Furthermore, the rented sector is still feeling the impact of the initial wave of right to buy in the 1980s, being a causal factor in the uncontained growth of private rentals and the prevalence of poor conditions within this sector.”