More than 100 local councils in England and Wales have not prosecuted any rogue landlords in the last five years despite getting thousands of complaints.

Data collected by Public Interest Lawyers reveals that there were 1,267 reported prosecutions during that time, working out at about one per 335 complaints. Of the 252 councils it contacted, 115 (46%) confirmed that there were no prosecutions at all from April 2019 to March 2024. A further 49 only sought court action against a solitary landlord in the five-year period.

As a number of authorities did not differentiate between civil penalties and court prosecutions, that number may be higher, reports The Canary website.

Across the 252 councils that responded to the firm’s request for information, 438,523 complaints or ‘service requests’ regarding housing conditions or landlord behaviour were recorded across five years. In London, two councils – Croydon and Redbridge – received more than 11,000 complaints each from tenants. The pair prosecuted nine and 22 landlords respectively.

Most complaints

Liverpool had the most complaints over five years (19,439), followed by Croydon (11,762), Cardiff (11,509), and Redbridge (11,488). Hull, Birmingham, and Torbay had a combined total of more than 20,000 complaints without any taking a single rogue landlord to court.

The Renters’ Reform Coalition believes the findings don’t show an absence of willingness to prosecute landlords, but the ability to do so. Director Tom Darling says: “The key problem councils face here is ultimately a lack of resources, after years of rising costs and shrinking budgets.”

Jae Vail (pictured), a spokesperson for the London Renters’ Union, agrees that many councils lack both the resources and the political will to hold landlords accountable.

“The government must ensure local authorities have everything they need to side with renters and enforce our basic rights,” Vail says. “Renters also need the legal right to pause rent payments in cases of serious disrepair so that we have more control over our own homes and don’t have to…depend solely on councils, many of which have failed us in the past.”