How should the lettings industry be regulated?
Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert wants to see full regulation of letting agents, and local authorities freely able to introduce licensing of all landlords – indeed, his private member’s Bill calls for just that.
Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association, wants a different approach.
Although he does not discuss agents, his views are interesting: in a nutshell, landlords should belong to a self-regulating, voluntary but tough scheme.
That would leave local authorities with the task of hunting down, and monitoring, those landlords who refused to join.
It would make sense for local councils’ budgets, argues Ward, who points out that blanket licensing in Newham has so far failed to root out the 20% of hardcore landlords who are rogues.
Ward’s views are, by coincidence, expressed just as Bournemouth Council decides it will not go ahead with extending an HMO licensing scheme. Milton Keynes earlier this year made the decision to drop its proposals for blanket licensing. However, a second London council will: see story above.
Ward’s views can be read in full here:
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