The database was created by the Ministry of Justice to record the details of private landlords who have been convicted of safety breaches. There are 57 companies detailed, with 68 offences recorded.
Those landlords have now been named publicly by the magazine Environmental Health News after the information commissioner ordered the Ministry to release the list of landlords.
According to the data, the worst offender for prosecutions under the act has been Aspire Group Developments, which is based in Burnley.
Landlords face prosecution under Act
The firm rents out hundreds of homes across Lancashire but has been prosecuted five times. On one occasion, it failed to make repairs to a rundown and pigeon-infested house in Oldham.
A spokesman for Generation Rent said the database would be useful for councils and help them crack down on rogue landlords.
He added: “With more authorities introducing licensing and identifying criminal landlords, they will be driven out of some areas so the neighbouring councils need the means to stop these landlords exploiting their residents.”
The vice president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Stephen Battersby, said that criminal landlords need to be banned from ever renting out homes.
He added: “It is a fact that they have been prosecuted successfully which means they can be described as criminal. These are firms that should not be allowed to operate in the private rental sector.”
Mr Battersby also pointed out that the database did not reveal the true extent of the problem with rogue landlords since prosecutions were usually used as a last resort.
More information about the database is available at the Environmental Health News website.
Rent increases to 'flatline' in 2015
Meanwhile, lettings firm Belvoir is predicting that rent increases next year will flatline as tenants struggle with low disposable incomes and landlords will face interest rate rises.
The firm adds that the economic forecast is for growth to be lower next year than it was for this year.
In a review of the UK's rental market, Belvoir also says that concerns about government policies after the general election in May has also dampened prospects.
They reveal that rents vary considerably across England, from £570 per month for tenants in the East Midlands to around £1,500 per month for London tenants.
Belvoir says that its Scottish offices are seeing rents there falling slightly or flatlining outside of Edinburgh and Aberdeen with rents ranging from £5-600. For landlords in Wales, the firm says that rents have been static over the past year with tenants paying an average of between £5-700.
Dorian Gonsalves, the firm's director of commercial, said: “An analysis of rents this year reveals patchy recovery in some areas and rents are not rising at the same levels as property prices are. For new property investors, this will mean yields are being squeezed unless they are buying properties at a discount.”
