Council leaders welcome extra cash but both party and private landlords say it is insufficient

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

A £4m fund announced by ministers to pursue rogue landlords has been welcomed by councils but described as “puny” by Labour.

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the funding would be used by local authorities to drive out exploitative landlords and enable good landlords to thrive. Councils in Yorkshire and the Humber are planning to train 100 enforcement officers to vet standards in private lettings, while officials in Northampton are setting up a special unit to take action against the worst landlords.

About 1.2m privately rented homes are considered non-decent, more than double the proportion of council and housing association homes, according to the English Housing Survey.

The number of households in the private rented sector in the UK increased from 2.8 million in 2007 to 4.5 million in 2017.

Jenrick said: “It’s completely unacceptable that a minority of unscrupulous landlords continue to break the law and provide homes which fall short of the standards we rightly expect, making lives difficult for hard-working tenants who just want to get on with their lives.

“The funding announced today will strengthen councils’ powers to crack down on poor landlords and drive up standards in the private rented sector for renters across the country.”

But Labour said the fund was “a drop in the ocean compared with the cuts that councils have faced since 2010”, which had “gifted rogue landlords the freedom to flourish, by cutting council budgets, weakening their powers and refusing to legislate to drive up standards”.

The shadow housing secretary, John Healey, said: “Renters need a new legal charter of rights, with longer tenancies, new minimum standards and rent controls to make renting more affordable.”

Private landlords also said the budget was too small and “nowhere near enough to tackle the crooks”.

David Smith, the policy director at the Residential Landlords Association, said: “Instead of offering inadequate and sporadic pots of money, it is critical that the government provides proper, multi-year funding to enable councils to plan and prepare workable strategies to find the criminal landlords.

“This should be supported by councils having the political will to prioritise enforcement against the crooks, rather than tying good landlords up in licensing schemes which do nothing to protect tenants.”

Darren Rodwell, the Local Government Association’s housing spokesman, said: “Councils are doing what they can to raise standards in the private rented sector and are taking action where required, and it is important to note that most landlords are responsible and provide decent housing for their tenants.”