The government has vowed to crack down on dodgy rent-to-rent landlords who flout housing laws.

Housing Minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook (pictured) says it is aware of concerns that some rent-to-rent arrangements have sometimes been used to make it more difficult to identify landlords and hold them to account.

In response to a Parliamentary written question, she explained: 'We are determined to crack down on illegal practices in rent-to-rent schemes.'�

Lord Taylor of Warwick asked her what they were doing about those schemes that allowed some landlords to evade prosecution and laws supposed to protect renters.

Baroness Scott explained that the government had already given local authorities strong powers to uphold standards and to impose severe penalties on landlords who deliberately rent out substandard or unsafe accommodation, including civil penalties of up to �30,000.

Enforcement powers

She added: 'We are also exploring how we can strengthen local authorities' investigative and enforcement powers, as part of our forthcoming reforms of the private rented sector.

'This will help councils to identify culpable landlords and ensure that they can be punished through prosecutions, fines, rent repayment orders and potential banning orders.'�

Baroness Scott said the new property portal for private rented homes would make it mandatory for landlords to register their properties and aimed to help local authorities identify them more quickly and easily, improving the effectiveness of enforcement.

'We will continue to review the operation of arrangements such as rent-to-rent to ensure that tenants are adequately protected and have access to redress when things go wrong,'� she added.