"Councils, tenants, and even landlords agree: we need a landlord registry that holds bad actors to account and gives responsible landlords the credit they deserve"
- Christian Jaccarini - New Economics Foundation
Private renters across England are experiencing a postcode lottery when reporting unsafe housing conditions, due to a shortage of enforcement officers in local authorities, according to new analysis from the New Economics Foundation (NEF).
Under current regulations, tenants can escalate complaints to their local authority when landlords fail to maintain liveable conditions. However, the report highlights that many councils lack sufficient staff to uphold housing standards. On average, there are over 3,300 private rented properties for every enforcement officer across England, but this national average conceals large disparities between regions.
In Nottingham, each officer is responsible for just 267 properties, offering relatively strong enforcement capacity. In contrast, Huntingdonshire’s officers oversee nearly 25,000 private rented homes each, almost 100 times as many, leaving local enforcement efforts largely ineffective in practice.
In areas with limited enforcement resources, tenants are often left to live in homes affected by issues such as damp, black mould, and other hazards that can pose risks to health and safety.
The government’s renters’ rights bill includes plans to introduce a landlord registry, forming a national database to support tenants, landlords, and councils. While this proposal is seen as a positive step, NEF’s research warns that without increased staffing, the new system could add further pressure to already stretched local teams.
The study estimates that an annual registration fee of just £46 per landlord could allow no enforcement officer to be responsible for more than 1,000 properties. Nationally, this would result in a threefold increase in enforcement staffing on average. The financial impact on landlords would be minimal, with the registration cost reducing rental yields by less than 0.03 percentage points, even in lower-rent areas.
The proposed landlord registry would form part of a wider private rented sector database. NEF’s research found a strong consensus among stakeholders about the value of such a system:
Tenants, landlords, and local authority representatives all identified the database as a key opportunity to improve the sector.
All tenants and representatives surveyed agreed that it could offer vital regulatory support.
More than half of the landlords surveyed said the private rented sector requires greater regulation.
While the registry is widely supported, its success may depend on the ability of councils to enforce rules effectively. The findings suggest that small changes in funding could significantly boost enforcement and ensure that all renters, regardless of postcode, have access to safe, secure housing.
“Too many renters are stuck in damp, dangerous, and insecure homes, while rogue landlords go unchallenged and enforcement teams are stretched to breaking point,” said Christian Jaccarini, senior economist at the New Economics Foundation. “The good news is that we can change this. For less than the cost of a meal out for two each year, charging fees to sign up to a landlord registry could finally end the postcode lottery in enforcement and make decent housing a right.
He concluded, “Councils, tenants, and even landlords agree: we need a landlord registry that holds bad actors to account and gives responsible landlords the credit they deserve.”
