Higher fines targeting landlords may be irrelevant – because councils won’t pick them up.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) says the government is to allow councils to issue fines of up to £7,000 on landlords refusing to address poor conditions in rented homes as part of the updated Health and Safety Rating System.
NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “The overwhelming majority of landlords provide good quality and safe housing.
“That will be made easier thanks to the government’s work with the NRLA to improve guidance for landlords and tenants to identify and swiftly rectify hazards in properties.
“Good landlords, who meet standards and undertake repairs swiftly, will be unaffected by these tough penalties.
“But those criminal landlords, who undermine the reputation of all those who do the right thing, will feel the full force of the law.
“Increasing fines though, misses the point – namely that councils are not using their extensive and existing powers effectively to tackle rogue and criminal landlords.
“According to Freedom of Information requests by the NRLA, between 2023 and 2025, just a quarter of all fines issued to private landlords were actually collected by councils.
“If the government’s plans are to work, councils need the resources to do the job properly and these figures show that so many do not.
“The government should properly assess enforcement capacity and require councils to publish annual reports on activity to ensure accountability.
“Crucially, this should all be underpinned by the introduction of a new national Chief Environmental Health Officer, empowered to lead the charge for better enforcement across government.
“Alongside this, ministers need to develop pro-growth policies to support responsible landlords to provide the new, good quality homes to rent that so many tenants desperately need.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today