Councils get £1.21m to tackle poor quality rented homes

Councils get £1.21m to tackle poor quality rented homes

12:18 PM, 5th December 2022, About A year ago 3

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Three councils have been handed £1.21 million of government cash in a bid to tackle poor quality rented homes over the next two years.

The Derbyshire councils have been handed the money by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in a bid to help those areas with the ‘greatest need’.

The councils are Derbyshire Dales District Council, Amber Valley Borough Council and Erewash Borough Council.

‘This is an exciting partnership project’

Tim Braund, the director of regulatory services at Derbyshire Dales, said: “While there is still considerable detail to be worked out, this is an exciting partnership project.

“To make a significant impact on the private rented sector across the three authority areas we think it’s reasonable to aim to inspect around 500 properties per authority per 12-month period of the study.”

He added: “The funding will pay mainly for project management, staffing and associated costs, with Derbyshire Dales – which has a relatively high proportion of older properties in the private rented sector – being the lead authority.”

‘Bring privately rented homes up to the proposed Decent Homes Standard’

The councils’ main aim for the cash will be to bring privately rented homes up to the proposed Decent Homes Standard and how landlords in their areas ‘respond to enforcement’.

David Arkle, Amber Valley‘s head of housing, said: “It’s important to stress that the vast majority of private landlords provide a great service; it’s only a small minority that let down the sector.

“Working in partnership we want to collectively raise the profile of successful enforcement, changing expectations and driving improvement in pilot areas and beyond, while finding the best ways to develop an evidence base of effective approaches to enforcement and share best practices.”

Highest number of ‘non-decent’ homes

To begin with, the councils will undertake a lot of intelligence gathering such as identifying those areas with the highest numbers and proportion of privately rented homes, along with the areas that have the highest number of ‘non-decent’ homes.

Erewash Borough Council’s lead member for health and wellbeing, Coun Paul Maginnis, said: “The funding will enable the council to prioritise tackling poor quality private rented sector properties in the borough, and help us to build an understanding of what is needed to bring private rented sector properties up to the proposed Decent Homes Standard.”


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Comments

DAMIEN RAFFERTY

15:23 PM, 5th December 2022, About A year ago

Great
I only hope they start on the poor quality housing provided by council housing and housing associations up and down the country.
There are millions of rental homes which fail to meet EPC band C both in the private sector and public.
£1.200,000 is a drop in the ocean to meet the costs required to bring the many properties with EPC bands D, E, F and G up to the Decent homes standards.
Heating alone with the Cost of Living and Heating Crisis means Landlords and Council need to spend millions on insulation

Rod

16:34 PM, 5th December 2022, About A year ago

Whilst the aim of tackling poor quality home, it is seeking to apply an outdated Social sector standard to the Private rental sector.

Currently, the Decent Homes Standard
- is over 25 years old
- is awaiting the publication of the updated standard
- only applies to the SRS

The ECO and LADS initiatives already provide some funding for retrofitting the homes of tenants on housing support.

Until the Government publish the new DHS and the requirements are fit for application in the PRS this initiative will simply act like a government funded licencing scheme.

Paul Essex

17:43 PM, 6th December 2022, About A year ago

So once they have rescued the tenants from the bad housing they can then be transferred to great quality council accommodation.

Nobody seems to care about what really happens to those forced into often highly unsuitable temporary units often miles away from school, work, friends and family.

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