ANUK RECOMMENDED LOCAL AUTHORITY MODEL PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR STRATEGY

ANUK has identified two evolutionary changes in recent times in the relationship between local authorities and the private rented sector (PRS).

Firstly, local authorities are increasingly focusing on their strategic enabling role to work with and support their good landlords to provide the essential private rented housing service that the citizens of local authorities need.

Local authorities are increasingly seeing good private landlords as a valuable local resource and with who close working partnerships need to be formed.

The private rented sector is a challenging business for landlords. They need to make their investment profitable and meet their considerable responsibilities for the health, safety and welfare of their tenants.

Many landlords have other occupations and do not have the time or the opportunities to fully develop their professional skills as a landlord. This is where local authorities working in partnership with others can provide support to landlords to help them operate a profitable quality service.

In the ANUK local authority model PRS strategy described later, a list is provided of ways in which local authorities can support their PRS and vice versa.

The second change is in the way local authorities carry out their regulatory duties for the health, safety and welfare of private tenants.

Historically, local authorities have concentrated on the use of their statutory enforcement powers to improve and maintain proper standards. Whilst the sanctions for non-compliance can be severe, enforcement can nevertheless be expensive to administer and can lead to poor relations between the landlord and the local authority.

The use of accreditation as a form of self-regulation has shown that encouraging and acknowledging good landlords is a successful way to improve and maintain standards.

Consequently many local authorities are polarising their regulatory role by supporting their good landlords through the use of accreditation schemes and targeting their enforcement resources against the minority of poor landlords who, despite the offer of help, either cannot or will not improve.

The enabling and regulatory roles are complementary. The enforcement of standards against poor landlords effectively supports good landlords by ensuring a level business playing field and maintaining a good reputation for the PRS.

Accreditation schemes are currently operated by:

Local Authorities,
Higher Educational Institutions
Voluntary sector organisations acting as the agents of HEIs
The North West of England Landlords Association
Joint Partnership schemes
ANUK – National Code of Standards for Larger Student Developments

The majority of schemes are operated by local authorities. However those operated by other agencies are usually in partnership with local authorities, or have the support of local authorities or are endorsed formally or informally by local authorities.

To encourage accreditation ANUK recommends that local authorities endorse bona fide organisations as local authority approved accreditation scheme operators where these are operating within their administrative boundaries.

To achieve endorsement the scheme operator will be required to have:

• a satisfactory Code of Practice
• sufficient resources to effectively operate a scheme
• a satisfactory mechanism to undertake compliance checking, complaint investigation and disciplinary action

The details of how the endorsement system can operate are described later in the ANUK Local Authority model PRS strategy.

ANUK recommends that local authorities adopt a strategy for their private rented sector that follows three key principles in the ANUK local authority model PRS strategy.

The model recommends: 

• a balance between local authorities’ enabling and regulating roles.
• the use of accreditation complemented by enforcement
• the endorsement of accreditation schemes operated by bona fide organisations

The model provided below can be amended to suit local circumstances and adopted by local authorities. It comes with illustrative diagrams.

The model includes an endorsement agreement that can be signed by local authorities and accreditation scheme operators.

 ANUK has exclusive copyright to the ANUK local authority model PRS strategy. Only members of ANUK are entitled to use the model

For the text of the Model click here

For a diagram of how the model operates click here