Councillors have labelled a proposed voluntary landlord initiative to raise standards, “a waste of time”, prompting North East Lincolnshire Council to reconsider licensing plans.

The authority hopes to launch a selective licensing scheme in the East Marsh ward, while residents are also set to be consulted on the creation of two Areas of Action in parts of Heneage and Sidney Sussex wards, in Grimsby and Cleethorpes respectively, to “motivate landlords in these areas to work more closely with the council to bring their properties up to standard”.

Unconvinced

However, Councillors Matt Patrick and Edward Kaczmarek told Grimsby Live they are unconvinced the voluntary arrangement will work. They want the mandatory area to cover the identified parts of their wards that have the most acute housing issues.

North East Lincolnshire Council’s communities scrutiny panel will now look at the plans later this week, before the full council makes a decision about its scope and confirms the launch date for a 10-week consultation.

Equally

“The enforcement pilot of selective licensing should be carried out equally across all three wards,” says Councillor Kaczmarek. “The reason why we’ve called it in to change it is because it’s to target bad landlords. And for parts of Heneage and Sidney Sussex to be voluntary, the good landlords will volunteer, the bad landlords won’t. We feel like it’s going to be a waste of time as a voluntary scheme.”

The council has already approved a selective licensing scheme in areas of Crosby and Park, Town and Frodingham wards in Scunthorpe, which launches on 20th March, charging landlords a £955 licence fee.

The East Marsh scheme would cover 3,961 properties from Columbia Road to the A180 Cleethorpe Road, and between Victor Street and Park Street. The licence fee will be in the region of £899-£1,284.

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