The government has announced that local authorities will no longer have to ask the Secretary of State for consent to introduce selective licensing schemes in England and Northern Ireland from next week.

As of 23 December, councils will no longer need to seek permission from the secretary of state for housing in the event they wish to create a licensing scheme of any size. This latest announcement follows the publication of the Renters’ Rights Bill earlier this year, which pledged to establish a national database of private landlords and tenants.

The news has wide-ranging implications for private landlords across the market, although it is worth noting that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will still require a local housing authority to “satisfy all statutory requirements contained in Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004”.

The new guidance also says that: “In addition, local authorities will be expected to consult for a period of at least 10 weeks on the proposed designation”.

In addition, local mayors must be involved in decision making, and councils must also regularly update the ministry on their scheme’s progress.

Timothy Douglas, head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, said: “The private rented sector needs less selective licensing not more with the additional costs and duplication of rules that it brings. To this end, there are enough laws covering high standards for rented property, but it’s the lack of capacity of local authorities to actively inspect property and enforce these rules that is the main issue. Licensing means councils spend all their time administering schemes, rather than enforcing against rogue, criminal landlords.

“The Renters’ Rights Bill offers an opportunity to phase out licensing schemes, provide councils with the resources they need and endorse professional letting agent and landlords alongside the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard and Private Rented Sector Database. However, it would seem that the UK government is failing to recognise the benefits of doing this and not providing local authorities with the much-needed investment they need to enforce the wide range of legislation that already exists.”

Chris Norris, policy director for the National Residential Landlords Association, argues that “it makes no sense that whilst planning to create a national database of private landlords, the government now wants to make it easier for councils to license landlords as well”.

He continued: “Ministers must clarify how they plan to prevent the two schemes from duplicating each other. A failure to do so risks them becoming nothing more than cash cows.

“The government’s plans will remove important safeguards against misuse of council licensing powers. It absolves ministers of any responsibility and will give local authorities free rein to blanket entire towns with unnecessary and costly schemes.

“Data from 2021 to 2023 shows that seven of the top ten most proactive councils issuing improvement notices to private sector landlords did not have selective licensing schemes in place. This clearly demonstrates that licensing schemes do not automatically lead to higher levels of enforcement by councils.”