Licensing scheme for landlords in Liverpool 'will take 150 years to process'

A licensing scheme by Liverpool City Council to improve sub-standard housing has been described as a "waste of time" by landlords.

The crackdown went live on 1 April and has received an estimated 31,000 applications, but just over 100 licenses have so far been granted for rental properties.

The National Residential Landlords Association says previous vetting schemes have failed to properly address breaches of rules, such as overcrowding and building improvement notices.

It claims the council’s civil penalty strategy has served only to tackle administrative issues such as the failure to hold a licence rather than improving properties themselves.

According to Freedom of Information data previously obtained by the NRLA, between 2018/19 and 2020/21, out of 103 civil penalties issued to private landlords in Liverpool, 89 of them were for offences related to the previous selective licensing scheme.

No penalties were issued for failing to comply with a property improvement notice, a banning order or a notice that a property was overcrowded.

Only two penalties were issued for breaches of management regulations in shared housing.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association said: “If Liverpool Council really believes licensing is so key to ensuring properties are safe, it begs the question why it takes so long to process applications for them.

"At a time when the condition of housing is under such scrutiny, the Council is spending too much time administering a licensing scheme and not enough time taking enforcement action to tackle poor quality housing.

“Rather than penalising good landlords with a blanket policy, the Council should use the range of data already available to them to find and root out the minority of landlords who fail  to provide safe housing.”