Landlord Voice Magazine June 2015 - Bristol | Page 16

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l Agar
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Carl Agar is managing director of estate and lettings
agent Big Red House, a National Landlords Association
representative and founder of the Home Safe Scheme – an
organisation which helps landlords comply with selective
licensing.

Simple.

Selective Licensing:

a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

A

s always, housing took a
prominent seat in the election as
it continues to be an emotive issue
for many UK residents.

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Our politicians often grasp onto this issue
and tend to support any ideas or initiatives
that can help swing the tenant vote - after
all there are an estimated 10 million
tenants in the UK verses an estimated 1.5
million landlords.
While a conservative government tends to
be anti-regulation, many local councils are
quite the opposite, leaning more and more
towards the implementation of draconian
selective licensing schemes.

“In Bristol a small licensing
scheme has already been
implemented, while Bath
has been hit quite hard.”
So, why is this approach so popular?

It seems the real catalyst for the growth
of this approach was the ‘beds in sheds’
scandal in the London borough of
Newham. Though the scheme’s success
is widely debated it has been seized upon
as a silver bullet by local authority officers
and councillors after being so heavily
publicised.
My view is that it’s a sledge hammer to
crack a nut. It assumes that ASB and low
housing demand are caused by the poor
management of properties and the ɕ