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Cabinet to consider controls on private landlords
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| Tuesday 14th July 2009 |
Cabinet members in Gateshead are to be asked to back plans which will force landlords in Chopwell to obtain a local authority license before they can accept tenants.
In a report to Tuesday's Cabinet meeting (14 July), members will be asked to approve plans to introduce a landlord licensing scheme similar to one already on operation in the Sunderland Road area of Gateshead.
The move has been enthusiastically backed by local residents, many of whom have previously raised concerns about the management of privately-rented homes in Chopwell's river streets.
In a report to Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, members will be asked to approve plans for a licensing scheme will force private landlords to:
* prove they are fit and proper people,
* meet minimum housing quality standards,
* improve their standards of management,
* adopt strict vetting procedures to ensure tenants do not cause problems for their neighbours.
Under the proposed scheme, a person commits an offence if he or she has control of, or is managing, a house in a selective licensing area without a license. Offenders are liable to a fine of up to £20,000. In addition, a licence holder failing to comply with any licence condition is deemed to have committed an offence and is liable to a fine of up to £5,000.
Gateshead Council believes that introducing selective licensing to the river streets area will, when combined with other measures, lead to an improvement in the social and economic conditions in the area.
Gateshead became one of the first areas in the North East where private landlords were required to obtain a license to operate. The Sunderland Road area - whose problems had prompted Gateshead Council to begin a national campaign for landlord licensing eight years earlier - was formally declared a Selective Licensing Area in September 2007, bringing the eight-year national campaign for landlord licensing to a close.
The national campaign was launched in 1999 at the House of Commons by Gateshead Council's then-cabinet member with responsibility for housing, Councillor Peter Mole.
The campaign was the result of repeated complaints from residents in the Sunderland Road area and elsewhere about the actions of a small number of private landlords and the anti-social behaviour and chaotic lifestyle of their tenants. It quickly become apparent that the problems being experienced in Gateshead were being repeated right across the UK .
The Sunderland Road area in Gateshead bore many of the features of an area in serious decline - streets of homes blighted by badly-managed tenancies, increasing numbers of empty homes and increasing anti-social behaviour.
Local residents' and landlords' reaction to the scheme has been extremely positive, with many of the problems which previously blighted the Sunderland Road area having been addressed. Three landlords have been prosecuted for failing to obtain licences.
Members will be asked to approve the introduction of selective licensing of landlords to Chopwell at their meeting at Gateshead Civic Centre on Tuesday 14 July at 10.00am. |
| Posted by 0 for Gateshead Housing Company |
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