Councils awarded share of £4m to tackle rogue landlords and letting agents
I think my relatively local MP, Robert Jenrick, is fronting up a number of really interesting initiatives, this might be much “smaller beer” than the towns fund work he has initiated but I believe it’s an important step and not something which is relevant just to urban authorities. This story tells us:
A government offer of £4m for councils to crack down on rogue landlords has been dismissed as a “drop in the ocean” which will not be enough to end exploitation of vulnerable renters.
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said the money would be shared between more than 100 councils across England to tackle landlords who flout the law by offering inadequate or unsafe homes.
Mr Jenrick said the scheme, whose funding was announced in November, would help deliver “a better deal for renters”.
“It’s completely unacceptable that a minority of unscrupulous landlords continue to break the law and provide homes which fall short of the standards we rightly expect – making lives difficult for hard-working tenants who just want to get on with their lives,” he said.
“Everyone deserves to live in a home that is safe and secure, and the funding announced today will strengthen councils’ powers to crack down on poor landlords and drive up standards in the private rented sector for renters across the country.”