Northumberland County Council is the latest local authority to approve more selective licencing with two wards in the seaside town of Blythe being given the green light.

Landlords with properties in the Croft and Cowpen wards of the town, which has a population of 40,000, will have to licence their properties at a cost of £600 for the five-year scheme, which has yet to given a start date.

The decision by teh council follows a consultation carried out in the summer of 2023 which identified persistent problems caused by antisocial behaviour, poor property conditions,  high levels of deprivation, high levels of crime and low housing demand in the two wards.

This consultation originally only included the Croft area of the town which, it was identified, included some 550 properties managed by private landlords, but this has now been expanded to include the Cowpen area.

Anti-social behaviour

Like most selective licencing schemes, this is not just about applying for a licence and paying a fee.

Under this scheme, all private landlords within the two wards will have to demonstrate certain areas of good practice - for example, Energy Performance Certificate ratings, safe living standards and being able to demonstrate they can manage the property and any anti-social behaviour issues their tenants may cause – to get a licence.

Speaking at the meeting, the Northumberland Gazette reports that council leader Glen Sanderson (pictured) said: “[In Blyth] we will use licensing to improve the quality of properties currently owned by private landlords that are not of decent standard.

“As a council we are working with partners to tackle these problems, but we have had very limited success so it is only right we progress to this. Being a bad landlord can extend to tenancy management.

“The council will not stand by and allow residents to live in properties of low standards. When landlords do not obtain references allowing a culture of antisocial behaviour, this will tackle that.”

Northumberland is not the only council keen on this kind of licencing. Others in the region include Durham covering 29,000 properties and Newcastle covering 4,500 properties.