Landlord blames selective licensing for rising council housing waiting lists

A Nottingham landlord has blamed selective licensing for the city’s long council housing waiting lists.

More than 400 people apply to join Nottingham City Council’s housing register every month, and the supply of council housing is rapidly falling short of demand.

Mick Roberts, one of the city’s largest landlords to house benefit tenants, warns the situation will only get worse as more landlords sell up and people struggle to find homes.

Council have got selective licensing wrong

According to the Nottingham Post, the supply of council housing is “falling significantly short of demand,” with more than 11,000 people now on the waiting list in the city alone.

Mr Roberts claims this growing crisis is largely the result of selective licensing. He says landlords are selling up, leaving tenants with no choice but to turn to social housing.

He tells Property118: “It’s not rocket science, is it, Nottingham Council?

“At no point have you admitted you got it wrong with selective licensing. There are other national factors at play, like Universal Credit and Section 24, but selective licensing has been your biggest contributing factor to homelessness since August 2018, when you brought it in.”

Nottingham is not immune to challenges

Mr Roberts is now selling his properties and claims the council is asking him to license his houses even though he’s selling.

He says he is reducing the house prices by £20,000 in some cases to keep tenants safe by selling to other landlords who are prepared to keep them on at their lower-than-normal rent.

He warns the council’s social housing situation will only continue to get worse.

He says: “The council have no flexibility and no common sense to keep tenants safe.

“Follow the rules then and watch homeless numbers grow. Never mind the human factor on the tenants when they are left with nowhere to go.”

The council told the Nottingham Post: “Nottingham is not immune to the challenges surrounding the national supply of social housing and is falling significantly short of demand, leading to long waiting times.”

“The council is currently reviewing its housing allocations policy, which determines the priorities and a procedure setting out how it prioritises households looking to join the housing register.

“A public consultation will be taking place later in August asking people for their thoughts on the new policy.”