Lords discuss CIEH amendments to Renters’ Rights Bill on licensing

Two Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill on licensing have been discussed at committee stage in the House of Lords.

The amendments were tabled by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Shipley, who is a Vice President of the Local Government Association and a former leader of Newcastle City Council.

Lord Shipley told peers that the amendments “would remove unnecessary barriers to the use of licensing schemes to improve housing standards".

The first amendment would enable local authorities operating selective licensing schemes to use licence conditions to improve housing conditions. It would remove a “peculiar disconnect” in current legislation, highlighted by CIEH, whereby local authorities can introduce selective licensing schemes in order to address poor housing but cannot include in the licences themselves conditions requiring the physical state of the licensed properties to be improved.

The second amendment would increase the maximum duration of additional HMO licensing schemes and selective licensing schemes from five to ten years. Local authorities would then be able to implement longer schemes without repeating the time consuming and expensive designation process. CIEH argues that this would allow them to advertise longer term posts and to include training of new staff in these schemes.

The discussion in the Lords comes after Green MP and co-leader Carla Denyer tabled the amendments for the report stage of the Bill in the House of Commons and spoke on them in the debate. She also tabled and spoke on an amendment covering the same issues at committee stage.

The amendments are backed by the Renters’ Reform Coalition, which comprises 20 organisations and includes major housing and homelessness charities as well as CIEH.

The discussion in the Lords can be watched here. The CIEH amendments, which were not put to a vote, were numbered 253 and 254 and can be found here and here. A CIEH parliamentary briefing on them can be found here.

Mark Elliott, President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said:

“Licensing provides a means for local authorities to inspect privately rented housing using enforceable conditions - and to identify and resolve problems - without the need for tenants to have complained.

We want the Government to grasp the opportunity presented by this Bill to make it easier for local authorities to use licensing schemes to improve housing standards.

We will continue to promote these amendments as the Bill moves into its report stage in the Lords.”