Have say on getting Telford landlords licensed

Telford & Wrekin Council is after views on plans to improve conditions in the homes by requiring all private sector landlords and letting agents to be licensed and comply with a number of conditions.

Under the plans, the areas affected would include parts of Hadley and Leegomery, Malinslee and Hollinswood, Brookside and Sutton Hill and Woodside and could go live by February next year.

Angie Astley, assistant director for neighbourhood and 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."

The conditions to be abidided by would incluide maintaining the exterior of the property, co-operating with the council and police in resolving anti-social behaviour, and ensuring regular safety checks.

Others would include allowing council officers to inspect the property without notice when there is a justified reason for doing so, and ensuring that rooms other than bedrooms are not used for sleeping purposes.

Ms Astley added: "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.”

The plans will be out for consultation for 10 weeks, ending on August 21, with a number of consultation events held around the region.

The first will be at Hadley Learning Community Library and coffee area on July 18 from 3pm to 5pm.

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