Alternative to Selective Licensing
The Council has worked for many years with the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), and local landlord forums. There is a regular Landlord Newsletter which is published and circulated, advising on a wide range of relevant issues. There have been regular, widely published meetings in Rotherham led by the NRLA, where landlords could meet and discuss issues.
The attendance at meetings is constant, supported by a core of 20 to 35 local landlords who are trying their best to deliver quality services and effective businesses. Unfortunately, other initiatives to engage with landlords in the borough have been unsuccessful. The council has offered discounted training to landlords via the NRLA and free memberships, but the take up was in single figures. The Landlords Newsletter is periodically sent by email to all licence holders in Selective Licensing areas and other landlords who have agreed to join the council’s distribution. The newsletter provides a range of topical articles and offers the opportunity for feedback, but little has been received.
A significant issue which is a barrier to delivering alternative or voluntary, large scale housing projects in the private sector is the composition of landlords operating in Rotherham. In the current selective licensing scheme 71% of licence holders have only one property, whilst only 6% have 5 or more properties. The predominance of small landlords makes communication and effective training challenging. It is also likely that the vast majority of Rotherham landlords do not let property as their primary employment, which may contribute to the poor management identified.
Where it has been possible to offer an alternative to selective licensing this has been agreed. In 2020 a proposal was put forward to declare the Little London area of Maltby for Selective Licensing. The majority landlords and their agents put forward an alternative scheme which the Council considered viable, this was accepted and has been operational since. The model for this alternative management approach is however very specific to that particular area and would not be scalable to the wider area of Rotherham.
The reactive model of housing enforcement and intervention, though effective for those who are confident enough to complain, is not effective to safeguard tenants from dishonest landlords nor to deliver area wide improvement.
There is currently no realistic alternative to Selective Licencing in the wider borough to deliver sustained and effective improvements in the private rented sector.