The consultation seeks to hear from tenants, landlords, and local businesses about how the borough’s licensing scheme has affected them.
Licensing of more than 40,000 property has been a crucial tool for the Council to ensure that privately rented homes in Newham are safe, secure and well managed.
The current licensing scheme began in 2018, following Newham’s decision in 2013 to become the first UK local authority to apply licensing requirements to every private rental home in the borough.
Councillor Shaban Mohammed, Cabinet Lead for Housing, said:
“We want to hear from everyone in the borough who has a stake in safe, secure, and well-managed private rented homes.
“We want to keep delivering for you tenants and landlords by regulating the sector in a way that helps everyone to thrive, so it’s vital that you have your say on how our licensing is working for you.
“Democracy starts from the ground-up so I want to encourage everyone to take part. This is your Council and your borough, we work for you.”
Since 2013, Newham’s property licensing scheme has aided the recovery of £2.5 million in unpaid Council Taxes from landlords and ordered £350,000 in rent repayment from unlicensed landlords, all of which has helped improve housing services for our most vulnerable residents.
Licensing has helped the Council to step up enforcement by supporting 1100 prosecutions, serving 384 financial (civil) penalty notices, serving 2549 notices relating to property standards, and conducting 450 joint operations with police, fire brigade, or HMRC to tackle illegal activities.
The benefits of licensing go beyond enforcement by helping both renters and landlords to understand their duties and rights. Since 2018, the Council has dealt with more than 95,000 requests and contacts from landlords or tenants and carried out 15,300 inspections and audits.
The consultation opened today (9th November) and will close on Wednesday 26th January 2022. Residents, businesses, stakeholders or interested parties can submit a response by going to www.newham.gov.uk/propertylicensingconsultation