Views wanted on plans to improve privately rented housing standards in Telford & Wrekin

Telford & Wrekin Council has launched a consultation on proposed plans to improve housing standards in privately rented homes.

The ten week consultation starts today on a proposed five year scheme which would require all private sector landlords and letting agents in parts of Hadley and Leegomery, Malinslee and Hollinswood, Brookside and Sutton Hill and Woodside to be licensed and comply with a number of conditions.

The conditions would include things such as:

- The exterior of the property must be maintained in a reasonable decorative condition and state of repair
- Co-operating with the Council and West Mercia Police in resolving any complaints of anti-social behaviour
- Ensuring the property is cleaned before a new tenant moves in and changing the locks if the previous tenant hasn’t handed in all the keys.
- Landlords visiting their properties regularly and ensuring there are regular safety checks done on them
- Allowing council officers to inspect the property without notice where there is a justified reason for doing so such as potential breaches of the licence conditions.
- Ensuring that rooms other than bedrooms are not used for sleeping purposes and not allowing the property to become overcrowded.

Angie Astley, Assistant Director – Neighbourhood & Customer Services at Telford & Wrekin Council said:

“These proposals are not set in stone and we want to hear from as many landlords and tenants as possible during this consultation period.

“Through this scheme we want to help and protect both landlords and tenants.

“All of the areas proposed have higher rates of housing disrepair and a higher turnover of tenants compared to other areas of the borough.

“We want to try to create more stable communities where people want to stay and therefore the aim of this scheme is to reduce the number of times a tenant moves on, reduce the number of empty properties and reduce the number of times a landlord doesn’t receive rent because their properties are empty”.

“There are also associated issues of litter, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour which we believe this scheme would also help to address.

“And we would expect to see, as a result of the scheme, an increase in the value of properties in these areas; something which would benefit not just landlords, but homeowners as well.

“Similar schemes have been successfully introduced in places like Wolverhampton, Salford, Scarborough, Liverpool and Wirral and we are in touch with them to ensure we learn lessons from the introduction of their licensing schemes.”

For more information about the scheme and to complete the online consultation visit www.telford.gov.uk/selectivelicensing