Member

Licensing is self-funding. Licensing schemes pay for themselves through the fees that are charged. They thereby provide a sustainable and predictable source of income that enables local authorities to maintain staffing levels and support the training of new officers. Licensing supports targeting. Licensing schemes enable local authorities to target regulation where it is most needed: in other words, on tackling the worst landlords and supporting the most vulnerable tenants. The problem, however, is that local authorities are having to implement licensing schemes in the face of unnecessary barriers to their effectiveness. One of these unnecessary barriers is that local authorities operating selective licensing schemes are not permitted to use licence conditions to improve housing conditions—that is, the physical state of the licensed properties.