People found guilty of serious criminal behaviour could be banned from acting as landlords under plans to improve the quality of private rented housing published by Labour. The party is considering creating a national register of private landlords and, according to a policy review paper published on Tuesday, one proposal is for serious offenders to be struck off the register, and thereby prevented from renting to tenants.
Labour said that nearly half a million families and more than 100,000 pensioners are among those living in "non-decent" private rented homes.
"The private rented sector has an important role to play in meeting housing need," said Jack Dromey, the shadow housing minister.
"But too many tenants are in poor and sometimes dangerous homes. That's why Labour has set out proposals to drive standards up and bad landlords out."
According to new figures, up to 274,000 families with children and up to 65,000 pensioners are living in homes with potentially serious hazards, such as exposure to asbestos and carbon monoxide, as well as safety issues from lack of space and overcrowding.
Chris Norris, head of policy at the National Landlords Association (NLA), said:
“The NLA welcomes the Labour Party policy review’s focus on ridding the PRS of the criminal minority who blight towns and cities throughout the UK. However, we are deeply concerned about the impact of the initiatives discussed on levels of desperately needed investment in private housing. Too often the brunt of regulation intended to combat criminality and bad practice is borne by the professional majority, while a minority of rogue operators continue to evade detection and exploit vulnerable people.
We look forward to the opportunity to work with politicians on all sides of the debate to identify genuine solutions to the challenges faced by those living and working in the PRS. We believe it is essential that the debate addresses the problems which exist in the housing market, without neglecting the positive role played by private landlords.”
