The Postcode Lottery of Local Authority Enforcement in the PRS

Everyone deserves a safe and secure home. Poor quality housing should not exist in a modern society. The latest English Housing Survey has shown that while property conditions have improved over the past decade, there is still work needed to be done to ensure all tenants (both social and private) have access to safe and secure homes (MHCLG, 2018). The Government has taken steps to provide more powers to Local Authorities through the Housing and Planning Act 2016, and the introduction of Civil Penalty Notices up to £30,000. There is limited knowledge on how local authorities are implementing their new powers, nor, of how useful some powers are in addressing problems in the sector. Addressing this gap is key to developing new policies that can help drive criminal landlords out of the sector, ensure a level playing field for landlords that offer safe and secure homes, and ensure no tenant is subjected to poor quality housing.

The research presented in this report provides the opportunity to address these gaps and to further our understanding of local authority enforcement in the private rented sector. The research was conducted between June and September 2018 and involved submitting two Freedom of Information requests to Local Authorities in England and Wales. The first FOI was on Local Authority enforcement and received 291 responses, while the second FOI focussed on the new Civil Penalty Notices and received 293 responses.