Sir Robin Wales is the driving force behind Britain’s first council-wide landlord licensing scheme aimed at registering 35,000 buy to let homes and houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the East London borough.
Wales was giving evidence about landlord regulation to a Select Committee of MPs at the Houses of Parliament.
He told them that since the registration scheme started in January, around 15,000 property investors running 28,500 buy to lets and HMOs in Newham had signed up.
The council is now looking at enforcement action against landlords owning the 6,500 homes not yet registered with the council.
Landlords have nothing to fear
Wales pointed out to the MPS that enforced regulation had a 75% take up so far, against 5% for a voluntary landlord accreditation program run by the council up to last year.
"We know voluntary accreditation does not work because we have tried it," said Sir Robin. "Our mandatory scheme shows that Newham is leading the country when it comes to tackling bad landlords who flout the law.
"We want to work with good landlords, they have nothing to fear. It's the bad ones, the criminal landlords, that we're after. We will never accept private sector tenants being directly exploited by landlords who force them to live in dangerous and unacceptable conditions. All the evidence is voluntary accreditation simply doesn't work."
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) is also pushing for compulsory letting agent and landlord registration – arguing investors should belong to a reputable landlord association before they can rent out a home.
The ARLA proposal calls for an ‘umbrella’ organisation to manage other professional bodies.
