← Back to News
MP wades into row over landlord licencing
An MP has waded into a row over a proposal by yet another local authority to introduce additional licensing for landlords.
Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, has joined forces with the National Landlords Association to express concern that Crawley council has not fully considered the implications of the proposal.
The NLA claims Crawley council does not have substantial evidence of problems which can be attributed to poorly managed private rental property, and so cannot justify licensing.
Smith says: “Without substantial evidence and justification for implementation, all a council will achieve is a tax on tenants, as landlords will inevitably pass on the cost of the licence. You only have to look at the many other councils which have introduced licensing without proper evidence or need for it to see that it has not produced the desired effect.”
Smith says that since licensing was rolled out in Newham, east London, the cost to tenants and landlords has been £15 million, and a further £4m cost to the council to run the scheme.
“Surely councils do not want to spend money unnecessarily when they need to be tightening their purse strings” he says.
