Town hall chiefs deny ‘back door’ licence bid
JON MACPHERSON
COUNCIL chiefs have denied claims they tried to get plans to expand the controversial selective licensing scheme ‘in through the back door’.
Hyndburn council used emergency powers to approve the renewal and expansion of the scheme to other parts of West Accrington and Church at an urgent cabinet meeting earlier this month.
The council insisted that they have ‘followed all the legal requirements and guidelines’ and that there is ‘no requirement to provide any landlord or agent with notice of an urgent decision’.
However, Paul Brown, of the Hyndburn Landlords group, has warned that they will contact the Government to stop the scheme being ratified.
Hyndburn council introduced the £1.1m standards improvement scheme in 2012 to cover around 4,850 properties in Accrington and Church.
The current five-year scheme is set to end this November, and the council wants to expand it to include 1,000 more private rental properties in West Accrington, Spring Hill, Peel and Church.
More than 1,500 properties in Accrington and Church have been licensed since 2012.
Mr Brown said: “It still needs government permis- sion but we will be speaking to them to ensure they don’t get it. I didn’t find out until one of my clients spotted it on the internet two days after they got permission to do it. We were asked to consult and the Government’s guidance says that the council should take on board consultation and respond.
“They didn’t respond to anybody. They have simply taken the consultation, summed it up that they were all right and we were all wrong and proceeded without any variation whatsoever to the proposals.”
Coun Clare Cleary, cabinet member for housing, said they consulted with ‘many stakeholders’ including landlords, residents and businesses and received more than 1,000 responses with the ‘majority supporting the scheme’.
She said they renewed the scheme based on ‘all the relevant facts and studies, including Hyndburn Landlords’ written representations’ and changed fees and conditions based on these.
She added: “Parts of Accrington and Church are in low housing demand and some private landlords are part of the problem. The council is determined to ensure that tenants live in decent, safe homes that benefit from the best possible services from landlords and, in the council’s opinion, selective licensing of private landlords is the best way of helping to make this happen.”
Coun Cleary added that the urgent decision procedure was used to ensure the scheme comes into place in December 2017, coinciding with the end of the current scheme.