rural landlords

Food for thought on a day the Chancellor has been looking for options to repair the broken housing market. Martin Collect of English Rural spoke at our seminar on the theme of rural housing today was fab – you should look out for his slides on the RSN website when they are published next week.

Hundreds of local councillors in England’s rental hotspots are landlords or own second properties, including more than a third of members in some town halls, analysis for the Guardian has revealed.

More than 300 councillors in the 40 boroughs with the largest proportion of private homes for rent own multiple properties. One in seven elected representatives in the areas are landlords, according to declarations of interest.

The findings have sparked questions over whether the dual role makes councils less inclined to regulate standards in the private rented sectors, something landlord-councillors deny.

In Torbay, 39% of councillors own multiple properties, including one who has received more than £63,000 in housing benefit payments for tenants in the last two years.

Three Conservative councillors in the south coast authority, including the mayor, own a combined 68 residential properties. In Bournemouth, 15 of the 37 councillors hold multiple property interests; in Labour-controlled Leeds, 26 of the 99 councillors own more than one property in the city.

Councils have the power to regulate private landlords with licensing schemes that enforce minimum levels of safety and habitability, particularly in the poorest areas with large numbers of rental homes. None of these three authorities, which have the largest proportions of landlord councillors, have introduced such schemes.

Dan Wilson Craw, director of the pressure group Generation Rent, said: “It is worrying that towns and cities with high numbers of private renters are governed by a disproportionately high number of landlords, especially if it makes councils less inclined to regulate the local rental market properly.”