Worthing Borough Council is looking to crackdown on ‘substandard’ renting conditions with a new licensing scheme.
The selective licensing scheme will see landlords of privately rented properties in Heene, Central and Selden wards required to be licenced, for a fee, through the council.
The council’s cabinet member for housing and citizen services Emma Taylor-Beal (Lab, Heene) told the full council at its meeting on Tuesday, March 26, that the scheme would aim to reduce ‘substandard and sometimes dangerous’ living conditions for renters.
She said she hoped ‘good’ landlords would feel proud once licensed under the scheme, as a sign of ‘good quality’ housing, as it would separate them from some landlords who were ‘absolute rogues, expecting humans to live in conditions most of us wouldn’t want our dogs to live in.’
She said: “I don’t deny that some will cite this as the last straw to selling up – I’m sorry but that is a difficulty we’re faced with with the housing crisis.”
“We need to increase our stock of social housing that is actually financially accessible to people and don’t have this overreliance on private sector housing.”
A report on the scheme noted 22 per cent of properties in Worthing are privately rented, above the national average of 19 per cent.
It also said over half of all privately rented properties in Worthing are concentrated in the three chosen wards, with around 40 per cent in just Heene and Central.
Richard Novak (Con, Salvington) said his daughter is a single mother with a mortgage who lets out her property to help her through the cost of living crisis, already ‘struggling’ to provide for her family.
He said: “She is already in a net loss position, and if she was facing an extra £20 a month, it will push her over the edge.
Cllr Taylor-Beal said she was not ‘taking away from peoples struggles’, but that landlords are in a ‘privileged’ position compared to renters, especially due to ‘skyrocketing’ property values in the town – stating it was not an excuse to not crackdown on ‘bad’ landlords.
The scheme will not cover homes of multiple occupation, which are already covered by a separate council licensing scheme.
