Newham private tenants protected through Landlord Licensing Scheme

Citizen’s UK welcomes decision on the Newham licensing scheme and renews call for wider landlord licensing across London

Forty one thousand households in Newham who rely on the Landlord Licensing scheme to protect them from bad landlords in the private rental sector will be protected for a further five years. This comes after Housing Minister Alok Sharma extended the li scheme, although two areas in Newham were not included in the renewal.

London Citizens, the London branch of Citizens UK welcomed the news and has been campaigning on the issue of extending landlord licensing across London boroughs to ensure widespread abuses of tenants’ rights by unaccountable landlords are stamped out.

Although the decision was welcome, the government’s long-awaited decision, which comes after months of campaigning by Newham Council, was delayed meaning a gap of two to three months will exist between the old scheme and the new one.

Pete Brierley said:

“We’re really pleased that Alok Sharma has largely accepted the scheme and want to thank him for listening to the concerns of London Citizens members who consistently hear shocking stories of landlord abuses from across London. It’s great that Newham can now proceed.”

Whilst we welcome the decision on Newham, it is just one London borough and we remain keen to meet his team to discuss whether they will accept other licensing schemes put forward by Councils across London and recognise that this problem is far more widespread in the capital than is currently being addressed by selective licensing schemes already in place.”