Call to scrap landlord licensing after database rollout
3 weeks ago | 7 comments
Government confirms public access rules for landlord licensing registers
12:01 AM, 23rd October 2026, 2 days ago
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The government claims councils must make licensing registers available to the public but are not required to publish them online.
Across England, councils operate selective licensing schemes and HMO licensing schemes requiring landlords in designated areas to obtain a licence for their rental properties.
The government claim they encourage councils to make licensing registers accessible to the public.
Accessibility requirements
In a written parliamentary question, Labour MP Feryal Clark asked the government to review the rules “to ensure that statutory landlord licensing registers are readily accessible to the public in digital form”.
In response, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said: “Under the Housing Act 2004, local authorities are required to make their licensing registers available for inspection to the public.
“They must also provide a certified copy of their registers (or individual entry/entries from it) to anyone who requests it, subject to the payment of a fee.
“We encourage local authorities to consider accessibility requirements in meeting these duties and to ensure that any fees charged for this are reasonable and proportionate.
“There is no requirement for local authorities to publish their licensing registers. Where they choose to do so, they should consider any interactions with data protection legislation in respect of personal data contained within those registers.
“The government keeps licensing regulations under review.”
Landlord privacy
As previously reported by Property118, many landlords have raised privacy concerns over the PRS Database.
Under the PRS Database, landlords will be required to provide information about their properties, including the address, number of residents and bedrooms, as well as copies of gas, electricity and EPC documents.
The government told Property118 that data will be handled in line with data protection legislation, with further details to be announced in due course.
17 comments on this article
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Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 738 - Articles: 1
11:33 AM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
what is the point of a register if its available for inspection??????
Member Since October 2020 - Comments: 1399
11:48 AM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
Most Councils still rely on whistle blowing neighbours to report unlicensed properties, so they’ve been happy to publish the register online. In theory the new landlord database should change the landscape of licensing enforcement, but it seems that so few landlords nationally are aware of the database that its unlikely to make a difference for some time yet. In fact I can see Councils pressing Government to publish parts of the database online ASAP to start getting public reports of landlords not registered on that too.
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 738 - Articles: 1
11:52 AM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
Reply to the comment left by DPT at 23/10/2026 – 11:48
LB Newham register is no longer searchable so absolutely useless!
Member Since June 2021 - Comments: 60
1:55 PM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
West Northants Council used to publish the HMO licence database on the council’s website as a spreadsheet, including the licence holder’s full name and their registered address. They removed it about a year ago. The number of marketing letters I used to get (about 4 a week) all stopped when they did that.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 2597
2:18 PM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
Reply to the comment left by No hate plz at 23/10/2026 – 13:55
Marketing letters are one issue….I get a stream of them via the Land Registry but at least the people targeting you have to pay for that and enter an audit trail…but other issues are fraudsters targeting you and people attacking you.
Government isn’t good at protecting personal data. They shouldn’t be implementing this landlord database, especially not now with so many concerns about cyber attacks. They should be canning it. It is a waste of money anyway.
Member Since June 2021 - Comments: 60
2:27 PM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 23/10/2026 – 14:18
Oh, yes, I forgot. I had a neighbour of one of my HMO’s send threatening letters through my door in the middle of the night. To be fair, the tenants were out of order with 2 am parties. But that wasn’t a reason to threaten me. The police had a word, and they stopped. But they had got my home address of the online database.
Member Since May 2018 - Comments: 2597
2:43 PM, 23rd October 2026, About 2 days ago
Reply to the comment left by No hate plz at 23/10/2026 – 14:27
Of course they did. The reason the council published the details of landlords on its website as a spreadsheet is because they were ignorant and incompetent. If it’s not OK for people like Anne Widdecombe or David Amess to be attacked, why is it OK for landlords to be put at risk of attack?
People submitting their details to the landlord database are making the wrong assumptions when they do it…they are making the assumption that government is competent. But the truth is that the government wasn’t competent even before the threat of cyberattacks went up and you can see the evidence of that in the Renters Rights Act.
Member Since February 2024 - Comments: 33
10:10 AM, 24th October 2026, About 18 hours ago
The Information Commissioner has already ruled on this…..here is the action it resulted in for Hammersmith and Fulham Council…..
The HMO Register can be sent to you as a pdf version by email. The Council is authorised in Housing Act 2004 (section 232) to recover its costs of producing and sending a copy of the HMO Register, and this cost is £54.
The reason we supply the Register in pdf format is because advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2017 about disclosure of landlords’ names and addresses was as follows:
“As the duty of the council under the Housing Act 2004 is to provide a copy of the register (which will include the name and address of each licence holder by virtue of that duty) to a requester, such a disclosure of personal data is lawful and there would be no breach of the first data protection principle. However, it is the form in which the register is provided where it may be considered unfair and subsequently breach the DPA, such as publishing the full register on the internet. The requirement under the Housing Act is just to provide a copy of the register on request, there is no obligation to make it available electronically since publication on the internet may be unfair and excessive given the potential for ease of access by a large number of people.”
Therefore, the Council is not obliged to make the information available to you in excel or csv format as such forms of disclosure could be a breach of the DPA as it makes the names and addresses too accessible.
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 738 - Articles: 1
10:38 AM, 24th October 2026, About 18 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Paddy Murphy at 10:10
THANKS BUT RIDICULOUS. THE NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE LICENCE HOLDER COULD BE REDACTED ON THE REGISTER. AND LBN LICENCE REGISTER DOES NOT CONTAIN THE LICENCEHOLDER ADDRESS!
https://www.newham.gov.uk/downloads/file/11456/public-register-hmo
ANY REGISTER IS USELESS WITHOUT SEARCH FACILITY AS NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.
Member Since February 2024 - Comments: 33
10:53 AM, 24th October 2026, About 17 hours ago
Reply to the comment left by Joe Bloggs at 24/10/2026 – 10:38
I don’t quite follow your comment. My comment was a comment about the article not a direct reply to any of your comments.
What is ridiculous? My comment or the ICO ruling?
There is a search function on every Web page in Chrome it is CTRL F.
But I prefer if there was no search function then web scraping pages can’t run data queries on every Web page without having to manually enter the website.
Personally I think the name and address of the landlord should not be on a database, even a physical PDF at the town hall, because the tenancy agreement already contains that information. Even then I think it is an invasion of privacy and I should be able to give an address for notices only.
If there was an inbuilt search function I can get a bot or crawler to run a query basically saying ‘find me Joe Bloggs on any landlord database anywhere in the UK’. For me that is a real invasion of privacy.