Portsmouth City Council set to grant licences to smaller HMOs in the city

Following a summer consultation, to which more than 1,000 people responded, the city council’s cabinet is expected to approve the introduction of a five-year scheme from September aimed at driving up housing standards.

Should it be approved at Tuesday’s meeting, it will extend the licensing regime in the city beyond the current 1,226 larger HMOs to thousands of smaller homes. The council has estimated there are 6,000 in Portsmouth.

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‘Shared homes are a vital component of the housing market in Portsmouth and we have many good landlords already within the licensing scheme,’ cabinet member for housing Darren Sanders said. ‘We want the best for people renting privately. That means tackling rogue landlords and supporting good ones. That makes it sensible to extend licences that exist for large HMOs to all of them.’

Of the people who responded to this summer’s consultation, 70 per cent supported additional licensing while 20 per cent were opposed to it.

The law requires all HMOs with five or more tenants to have a licence with the council’s proposals aimed at extending this to three and four-bed homes. Licensing governs minimum accommodation and management standards, as well as gas, fire and electrical safety requirements.

The council has estimated it would need to employ 18 extra full-time members of staff to manage the scheme with these jobs funded through fees charged to landlords for licences.

But the proposal for additional licensing has been opposed by landlord representatives who said it would not help solve issues in the sector.

‘We believe that any regulation of the private rented sector must be balanced,’ the National Residential Landlords’ Association said. ‘Additional regulatory burdens should focus on increasing the professionalism of landlords, improving the quality of private rented stock and driving out the criminals who act as landlords and blight the sector.’

The Portsmouth and District Private Landlords Association said the scheme was ‘not justified by the evidence’ put forward by the council.

‘Much of the logic used to justify the introduction of additional licensing is flawed,’ it said. ‘The proposed scheme is overblown and excessively expensive and sets standards which will push thousands out of their homes in the city as they will no longer be able to afford to live here.’

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It said the claim that almost one-third of HMOs had serious hazards – three times the national average – was likely to be because inspectors were less well trained.

Cabinet member for community safety Jason Fazackarley said they had listened to the concerns raised by landlords and said those with a track record of providing good housing needed to be less ‘burdened’ by the scheme.

He said: ‘This would allow landlords we see providing good properties to hold licences for longer, cost them less and with fewer inspections than those who perform poorly and require regular review.’

A report published ahead of next week’s meeting puts forward two options for the introduction of additional licensing: a flat system through which all landlords would have to pay about £930 for a five-year licence or the tiered one through which ‘the best landlords’ would pay £750 for a five-year licence with the remainder paying £1,050.