The National Landlords Association (NLA) is calling for Hammersmith Council to reconsider their plans for licensing landlords and is alarmed that the Council has not fully considered the implications for landlords and tenants.
Licensing is a powerful tool at the disposal of local authorities but it should only be used where issues in specific areas are directly attributable to poor property management or standards of private rented housing. The NLA does not believe that Hammersmith and Fulham Council currently has substantial evidence to justify the need for licensing.
Gavin Dick, Local Authority Policy Officer, NLA added:
“Without substantial evidence or the justification for implementing a licensing scheme, all Hammersmith and Fulham Council will achieve is a tax on tenants, as landlords inevitably pass on the cost of the licence. You only have to look at the many other councils which have introduced licensing without a proper evidence-base to see that it has not produced the desired effects.
“If councils are serious about tackling poor property standards and anti-social behaviour, they should first look to the extensive existing legal powers they already have to deal effectively with the issues.”
Meeting details
Tuesday September 13th
LFB: 190-192 Shepherds Bush Road W6 7NL
Meeting registration 6.30pm for 7pm start
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
I am not a landlord, nor a micro-state libertarian, but I am troubled by this too. There is already an extensive range of powers to deal with unsafe or overcrowded accommodation – why do we need another layer of costly regulation?
Many problems in the private rented sector are the responsibility of the tenants themselves – again there are existing tools to deal with noise, anti-social behaviour, rubbish dumping and the like.
But it does depend on the council having the will to enforce these properly and I suspect that it is not there – they are not keen to alienate a core constituency. So let’s blame nasty greedy private landlords instead, whether it’s for a noisy party or rubbish left out on the wrong day.