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14/7/25 8:13 pm
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More landlords in a key London borough are to face selective licensing if councillors in Enfield get their way following a 12-week consultation due to finish next month.
Landlords in 13 wards across the borough have been covered by the existing selective licencing since 2021 and this scheme, which charges £735 per property, is due to finish in August next year.
The borough’s councillors now want to repeat the selective licensing scheme but raise the fee by £20 and extend the scheme to a further four wards, or 17 in total.
Enfield council has justified extending the scheme by saying the existing one “has been effective in improving housing conditions and reducing anti-social behaviour”.
While the scheme has seen significant improvements its enforcement team say that having reviewed a range of evidence, licensing “is the most effective way to continue to maintain and improve housing standards and management of properties that are privately rented to single-family households”.
Its ‘evidence pack’ also makes the somewhat controversial claim that the looming Renters’ Rights Bill, while giving tenants more rights and councils more powers, isn’t sufficient to regulate Enfield’s private rented sector and that therefore a further five years of selective licensing is required.
Housing industry trade body Propertymark recently said that Enfield’s scheme, along with many others across the UK, were a ’blunt instrument’, often pointlessly cost landlords hundreds of pounds, are ignored by rogue operators and consume scarce council resources.
Enfield council also operates a borough-wide HMO scheme also begun in 2020 for smaller properties in addition to the mandatory scheme for larger HMOs.
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