Stop targeting private landlords with selective licensing while council homes rot

Like many landlords, there’s not a lot that gets me hot under the collar anymore after years of being victimised and ridiculed but two things this week deserve closer attention.

Private landlords are being squeezed dry by councils wielding selective licensing schemes like a blunt weapon. Fees, such as Leicester City Council’s eye-watering £1,290 per property, are branded as necessary to root out ‘rogue landlords’ and protect tenants.

Yet, these same councils turn a blind eye to the deplorable state of their own social housing stock, where tenants endure mould, damp and even asbestos-laden ceilings left unrepaired for years.

The hypocrisy is glaring, and it’s time to ask: why is the private sector vilified while social housing providers get a free pass?

Social housing crisis

Let’s look at the Housing Ombudsman’s recent Repairing Trust report which lays bare the crisis in social housing.

Complaints about substandard conditions have surged by 474% since 2019/20, with cases including a child’s bedroom window boarded up for four years and collapsed ceilings ignored for two.

Awaab Ishak’s tragic death in 2020, caused by prolonged exposure to mould in a Rochdale Boroughwide Housing flat, sparked Awaab’s Law, yet its full implementation is delayed until 2027.

Social housing landlords routinely misclassify urgent repairs or delay action, leaving vulnerable tenants in unsafe homes. Where’s the accountability?

PRS landlords are scrutinised

Contrast this with the private rental sector (PRS), where landlords face relentless scrutiny.

Selective licensing schemes, meant to target criminal operators, are being applied borough-wide, which could include some of those fancy pants blocks of luxury flats with gyms and cinema rooms.

Now, 40 landlords and letting agents in Leicester are suing the council over its ‘unreasonably extortionate’ charges.

These fees, which dwarf those in comparable cities, lack transparent justification.

Where does the money go? Landlords and tenants deserve a detailed breakdown, not vague promises of ‘improved standards’.

The irony is that these schemes, sold as tenant protection, drive up rents.

Landlords, already operating on slim margins, pass on the cost of licensing fees to tenants. It always makes me smile when an unworldly leftie councillor demands in a council meeting that landlords don’t pass on the license cost to tenants. Why not? This is a business.

These fees inevitably hit the very people these schemes claim to protect: low-income renters struggling to make ends meet.

If councils provided clear metrics showing how these fees improve tenant outcomes, perhaps the bitter pill would be easier to swallow. Instead, it feels like a tax grab, with no oversight or accountability.

PRS landlords fined

Meanwhile, social housing tenants face conditions that would see private landlords fined up to £30,000 for administrative errors alone.

The Ombudsman’s report highlights systemic failures: inadequate record-keeping, temporary repairs instead of lasting fixes, and landlords waiting for ‘available resources’ before acting.

In the private sector, such delays would brand you a rogue landlord, yet councils and housing associations face no equivalent licensing or fines. Why the double standard?

Up to 50,000 social homes in London are reportedly being sublet, with no apparent checks on who is, or should be, living there.

Private landlords, by contrast, conduct regular inspections and repairs within days to maintain property value and tenant relations.

The media, particularly the BBC, has been complicit in this skewed narrative, fixating on private sector failings while barely whispering about council-run squalor.

Indeed, I believe that most people now associate any bad news in rented property as being the fault of private landlords.

Private landlords aren’t villains

This selective outrage fuels a perception that private landlords are the sole villains, ignoring the fact that social housing providers are failing tenants on a massive scale.

Labour is pledging £2 billion for 18,000 new social homes by 2029 which, while welcome, won’t be met and it sidesteps the urgent need to fix existing properties.

The solution for councils isn’t to impose more licensing fees or blanket licensing but consider transparency and fairness.

Councils must justify every penny of licensing costs and apply the same standards to their own housing stock.

Private tenants must be empowered to demand accountability from any council with a selective scheme that covers their property – starting with clear breakdowns of how licensing fees in their rent supposedly benefit them. Let’s see how they justify that without any facts and figures.

If councils want to play housing police, they should start by cleaning up their own stock.

Until then, the war on private landlords will only inflate rents and deepen the housing crisis.

It’s time for a reckoning – one that holds all landlords, private and public, to the same standard. Anything less is an insult to tenants and a betrayal of fairness.

Until next time,

The Landlord Crusader

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