Councils given public cash to tackle poor rental housing standards

Three councils will be sharing £1.21m in public cash over the next two years to tackle poor quality properties in the private rented sector. 

The funding comes from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, which approached Derbyshire Dales District Council in September; Derbyshire Dales then contacted neighbouring Amber Valley  and Erewash local authorities. 

A spokesperson for Derbyshire Dales council’ says: "While there is still considerable detail to be worked out, this is an exciting partnership project. To make a significant impact on the private rented sector across the three authority areas we think it's reasonable to aim to inspect around 500 properties per authority per 12 month period of the study.  

"The funding will pay mainly for project management, staffing and associated costs, with Derbyshire Dales - which has a relatively high proportion of older properties in the private rented sector - being the lead authority." 

A key area of the joint study will be to build an understanding of what is needed to bring private rented properties up to the proposed Decent Homes Standard, and how landlords respond to enforcement.  

An Amber Valley council ’spokesperson says: "It's important to stress that the vast majority of private landlords provide a great service; it's only a small minority that let down the sector. Working in partnership we want to collectively raise the profile of successful enforcement, changing expectations and driving improvement in pilot areas and beyond, while finding the best ways to develop an evidence base of effective approaches to enforcement, and share best practice." 

In its initial stages the study will need to include a significant amount of intelligence gathering around issues such as identifying geographical areas with the highest proportions and numbers of private rented properties and those areas that have the most ‘non-decent’ homes.