Agenda item

This report presents a draft H&F Private Rented Sector (PRS) Policy (Appendix 1) which sets out a vision for supporting residents to access affordable, secure, and high-quality PRS homes, and to help make standards among the best in London. The amended policy will be submitted to Cabinet for consideration in Autumn 2024.

Stefan Robinson (Head of Policy and Programme Management Office) explained that the Policy Team had been working in collaboration with the Private Rented Sector (PRS) Team to set a clear policy position on how the Council would support residents to access high quality private rented homes in the borough. He then presented the background leading to the draft H&F PRS Policy, including how the PRS had grown significantly over recent years, and the work undertaken to engage with 270 renters, landlords and local residents through a survey, focus groups or interviews.

Ed Shaylor (Assistant Director, Housing Standards) outlined the powers, namely, environmental health power and public health power used by the Council to intervene with the private landlords. He also briefed members on his team’s involvement in the borough’s housing standards, including those Council properties on the private rented market and temporary accommodation.  He then continued the presentation to outline the priorities and draft commitments of the PRS policy.

Noting the powers available to the Council to intervene with the private landlords, Councillor Omid Miri considered it was necessary to strengthen communication and enhance renters’ awareness about their rights.

Ed Shaylor agreed with the Chair that private landlords needed to ensure safety standards were met in rented premises just like restaurant operators.  It was also important for the renters to know how to exercise their statutory rights.  He then detailed what private renters could do in seeking rent payment orders or settling deposit disputes at a county court, and lodging complaints against the letting agent through the property redress scheme or ombudsman schemes.

Councillor Francis Umeh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) supplemented that one of the draft policy priorities was shaping the national conversation. H&F would support the introduction of a landlord register across the borough to provide residents with public information on the quality of the properties and landlords.  She believed landlords would become more effective in their role through the process. 

In this regard, Councillor Miri pointed out that landlords were providing housing supply and the average rent might go up if they were forced to exit the market due to increased demand on them. To ensure landlords and renters  understood where they could seek support, he suggested providing a one-page briefing note to the ward councillors to help spread the message.  Ed Shaylor said consideration would be given to briefing the councillors on the PRS policy.

ACTION: Ed Shaylor

Councillor Asif Siddique asked for the number of local authorities having a PRS policy in place. He was also concerned that the scheme of HMO licensing in H&F was not as successful as those in some other London councils.  He wondered if it was due to the high licence fees.

Stefan Richardson estimated that based on the Policy Team’s research, approximately half of the London boroughs examined had some form of public PRS policy or strategy, and that these were becoming increasingly common because of the rise in the number of PRS homes.  Generally, the councils would tend to include the PRS as one of the objectives in their housing strategy. He noted that H&F’s draft policy was more ambitious compared to other authorities. At an appropriate juncture, this piece of work would be incorporated into H&F’s housing strategy.

Ed Shaylor noted that the fee structure for HMO licensing was set by the Cabinet in December 2021, with the fees and charges schedule being adjusted in line with inflation every year.  The level of H&F’s licensing fee, which covered the administration cost of issuing the licence and the general management and enforcement of the scheme, was fairly average when compared with that of other boroughs. In addition to licensing HMOs, the Council had also run a selective licensing scheme for rented-out properties on 24 streets including the King Street.  The PRS licensing schemes covered about 20% of the private housing stock in the borough.

The Chair asked whether renters who lived in licensed properties were aware of this and the redress that was available to them. Ed Shaylor speculated that renters were probably unaware and hence publicity through social media might be considered. Councillor Miri suggested sending letters to inform the renters in these licensed properties.

Regarding Councillor Siddique’s further question, Ed Shaylor noted that to encourage the landlords applying for the licences, there was an early bird discount for a few months when the licensing scheme was first launched in 2017.  On flexibility of licensing, Ed said the landlord could apply to vary the licence between an ordinary selective licence for a family and an HMO licence for 3 or more sharers. The Council’s licensing scheme aimed at regulating the properties in terms of safety and space standards. Officers were not involved in the selection or management of tenants, although licence conditions require licence holders to obtain references and deal with ASB.

Noting online application was the only option available to landlords, Councillor Adroine Alford pointed out that some landlords were still struggling with technology. Ed Shaylor said officers could assist those landlords to input the data for them over the phone and to process checks instead of digital payments if necessary.

Councillor Alford asked about officers’ working hours post-covid as she could not locate an officer for assistance on a case she considered very serious. Ed Shaylor noted that officers in his team were working full-time in hybrid mode.  They organised their visits and completed their paperwork at home or in the office.  In the rare situation that an emergency visit was required, officers who did not live far could be engaged at short notice.

Councillor Alford expressed concern that only 270 people had responded to a consultation relating to 30,000 private rented properties. While agreeing more responses might show greater statistical significance, Stefan Robinson stressed that clear efforts had been made to promote the survey and engage residents with it through a wider range of networks and promotional activity, such as via the faith forum, renters’ rights groups, resident e-news, community groups, and partners in voluntary community sector as well as via a press release and paid social media promotion.  He highlighted that the 270 responses provided a good understanding of the local picture.  He explained that the consultation involved a range of different engagement types, including in-depth sharing of experience through conversation and case studies which provided a good depth of understanding of the local experience and could be used to inform the Policy. Stefan mentioned that the Policy would likely undergo substantial development following the consultation.

Councillor Umeh added that the private rented sector was made up of people on disposable income, benefits or caught up in challenging circumstances. She also noted that renters were over-represented by specific minorities (or global majority) of black, and brown Asian who for one reason or another chose not to engage in the survey.  She reassured the Committee that this survey together with research and different surveys had helped to support recommendations for a national landlord register, which could provide information on levels of rent and service charges, and develop a decent home standard for the PRS.

In terms of home standards, Councillor Miri asked whether the Council would check the quality of the in-borough temporary accommodation instead of relying on the London-wide scheme currently run by the Ealing Council.  Ed Shaylor advised that the Procurement Team of the Housing Service did check all the temporary accommodation they had sourced. Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) referred to the bed bugs situation found in a temporary accommodation last summer. He was pleased to note that the PRS Team, being the independent person holding the Housing Service accountable, had considered that the Housing Team had followed the procedures and met the required standards.

On the way forward, Councillor Umeh noted after revising the draft policy based on feedback from the consultation and this meeting and aligning it with changes in the central government’s legislation, the draft policy would be finalised by the Cabinet in Autumn for delivery and engagement with all relevant parties over the course of 12 months. 

Summing up, the Chair hoped that communication with residents would be strengthened. 

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report on draft PRS policy.