Mayor Jason Perry’s proposals for a landlord licensing scheme to be introduced by Croydon Council later this year are discriminatory against half the borough, creating a postcode lottery for private renters.
Lottery: Cllr Claire Bonham says that all Croydon’s private renters deserve the protection of a landlord licensing scheme
That’s according to Councillor Claire Bonham and residents in her Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood ward, which has been excluded from the Tory Mayor’s scheme because it does not meet the criteria.
Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood is one of 14 wards in the borough that were left out of the council’s consultation, which ended last month.
There are 28 wards within the borough of Croydon. The 14 chosen to be subject to Mayor Perry’s landlord licensing scheme are mostly in Labour-supporting areas.
Not a single Conservative-voting ward has been included in the proposed landlord licensing scheme.
The latest landlord licensing scheme was cobbled together in the final days of Katherine Kerswell’s time as the borough’s chief executive.
Croydon has had a landlord licensing scheme in the past, from 2015 to 2020. That scheme was borough-wide. A five-year licence cost landlords £750. More than 37,000 property owners took out licences under the scheme. Perry and Croydon Conservatives opposed the previous licensing scheme because… it was unfair on landlords.
Landlords who failed to sign-up to the scheme faced possible fines of £20,000. Those licensed landlords whose properties failed inspections under the scheme could be prosecuted, and faced fines of up to £5,000.
But the evidence suggested that Croydon’s previous licensing scheme, despite banking £6million in fees from landlords, conducted few, if any, effective enforcement inspections.
According to the council’s own figures, in 2016-2017 the council completed 3,473 inspections of private housing and 806 inspections of council-owned homes.
In 2017, there was just a single prosecution brought by the council under the scheme.
Unfair: Mayor Perry’s scheme excludes landlords in 14 of Croydon’s 28 wards, 13 of them Conservative wards
Landlord licensing by local authorities can provide private renters with a degree of protection against unscrupulous landlords over issues such as the maintenance and condition of properties. The latest proposed scheme, according to the landlords’ chum Jason Perry, will “allow the council to be more proactive when it comes to the private rented market”. Just not in 14 of Croydon’s 28 wards.
Perry, who is the director of a firm that sells plastic guttering, said: “It’s important that we as a council do what we can to make sure all residents live in good quality homes.” Just not all residents in 14 of the borough’s wards.
In one of the wards kept out of Perry’s landlord licensing scheme, Councillor Bonham has described the exclusion of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood as “manifestly unfair”.
Bonham, Croydon’s only Liberal Democrat councillor, said, “I am very disappointed that private renters in my ward will not be covered by this scheme if it is adopted by Croydon Council. The council is saying that if you don’t live in one of the 14 wards and aren’t in an Home of Multiple Occupation, you will be left out. That is manifestly unfair.
“No one should have to put up with poor-quality housing, regardless of where they live.”
Bonham says that for the scheme to be fair, and not a lottery based on the council’s internal boundaries, landlords in all wards should be subject to any scheme.
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This scheme does not comply with the principles of equality or fairness, the scheme should apply to all Private Landlords throughout the Borough. It will then give protection to all private tenants rather than the few! Has this proposed scheme been signed off by the Secretary of State?
May be fairness & principles are not in this game of protecting private tenants or private landlords. We all need protection.
Gaining votes from certain sections of Croydon might be on the agenda.
Blatant electioneering there by P³, or as we used to call it, gerrymandering
Why is Labour not challenging this unfair practice? seeing it is punishing Labour held wards?
This selective roll out is dishonest, unfair and overwhelmingly burdens a select few landlords.
Firstly all private landlords should be licensed, such landlords are in the business for profit and not because they want to provide homes. Labour’s silence is not surprising is it?
Doesn’t the Renters Rights Act which just came into force afford tenants sufficiently robust protection, especially when the next part of the legislation, the landlords database comes into effect? The database will allow the authorities to keep track of all private landlords.