How has the Poppy Appeal Adapted to Tier 3?

Bid to bring back

landlord licences

By RUARI WALSH

Liverpool Council is fighting to reinstate the Landlord Licensing Scheme after it was rejected by the government at the beginning of the year. The programme was originally launched in 2015 to regulate private landlords, curb illegal behaviour from rogue landlords and improve conditions for renters. The scheme made every landlord in the city pay for a licence which could only be granted after an inspection deemed that the property they were renting out was up to standard. Between 2015 and 2019 the programme was successful in rooting out rogue landlords and in that time serious issues were uncovered in many properties such as fire hazards, electrical safety and excess cold. However, when Liverpool City Council made a request to central government to extend the scheme at the beginning of this year, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick turned it down. A spokesperson said: “Following careful and detailed consideration, it was decided that Liverpool City Council’s application for selective licensing did not demonstrate robust evidence to support the existence of low housing demand across the whole city.” Liverpool City Council questioned the rationale for the decision, with Mayor Joe Anderson threatening legal action and since then the council has drawn up three different plans to replace the previous programme in a way that would be acceptable to central government. Consultation on which of these plans goes forward ended this weekend and the council are hopeful their new plans will be accepted. Council spokesperson Paul Johnston said: “Last time around it was a whole city scheme covering all 30 wards based on low demand.

“This time we are consulting on options for a smaller scheme based on one of these three options:

“Low demand, which would cover 13 wards, deprivation, which would cover 14 wards or poor property condition, which would cover 16 wards, which is our preferred option.”

Landlord licensing has come under criticism from some quarters and opposition from landlords. The National Residential Landlords Association is the UK’s largest membership organisation for private residential landlords and represents over 84,000 members who, according to their website, “seek a fair legal and regulatory environment for both landlord and tenant and actively lobby the Government on behalf of our members.” A spokesperson from the NRLA said: “We support small scale local licensing schemes where evidence justifies it, but the revised Liverpool scheme is simply too large, covering up to 80% of PRS (Private Rented

Sector) properties.” “Unfortunately, there is no sign that the failings of the previous scheme have been addressed, including the lack of capacity to process applications quickly, inspection of properties and effectively enforcing breaches.” The council has said it would be hoping to implement the new scheme quickly after the consultation so that it would come into effect next summer.

“The revised Liverpool scheme is simply too large...”

TALKING POINT

HEIDI HEWLINGS visits the Everton Two store in Liverpool to ask fans for their thoughts on one of the Blues’ greatest heroes, Dixie Dean. His 1927/28 season at Everton saw him score more than 60 goals, setting an unbeaten record

Alfie Wilkinson, 37: “I think every Evertonian will agree that Dixie Dean is Everton FC. He’s like part of the furniture at the club. Even though I never saw him play he’s still a living legend to me.”

Darren May, 41: “Dixie Dean will always live on at Goodison. Whenever I pass his statue outside the ground on match days it almost makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If only we had a player like him today.”.

Jonathon Hayes, 55: “I don’t think we’ll ever have another player like him. The passion he had for the club was like nothing else and I think that’s what made him so remarkable. He was a Blue through and through.”