The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has backed calls for better funding of councils’ housing enforcement and stronger selective licensing.

It’s one of the 21 groups in the Renters’ Reform Coalition whose latest report - Roadmap for Reform – says central government should support councils through “better resourcing, funding for training of environmental health officers, making it easier for councils to introduce licensing and consolidation of legislation”.

It suggests local authorities operating selective licensing schemes should be able to use licence conditions to improve housing conditions and wants discretionary licensing schemes extended from five to ten years. It also believes the Secretary of State should no longer have the ability to veto selective licensing schemes covering more than 20% of the local authority area. The report says: “In the longer term, the government should look to establish a universal licensing scheme covering the whole of England.”

Licensing

CIEH president Mark Elliott (main image) adds: “We are particularly pleased that our positions on funding for training of environmental health professionals, consolidation of the various housing standards and removal of unnecessary barriers to the use of licensing schemes are echoed in the report.”

The coalition wants the government to hand out compensation for evicted tenants when landlords repossess their properties so they can sell or move back in themselves, to introduce longer protected periods and give them the right to pause rent payments in cases of serious, unaddressed disrepair.

It hopes to influence MPs and prompt amendments in the run-up to the Renters’ Rights Bill second reading this week, with other suggestions in the report including that where a landlord uses eviction ground 1A, they should be required to offer the tenant a ‘right of first refusal’ to buy the property or to nominate a purchaser and to put rent data in the new digital Private Rented Sector Database.

Pic credit: CIEH