WIREDGOV

A licensing scheme in Newcastle will impact fewer properties than previously planned for, after the Council listened to landlords concerns.

Newcastle City Council approved plans for the licensing scheme at a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Originally, the Council planned to introduce both additional licensing and selective licensing in the city which would have impacted more than 18,000 properties-that’s 68% of all private rented properties in the city.

Following a consultation on the plans, the Council made the decision to reduce the size of the selective licensing scheme from 9122 properties to 3664 properties, with the proposed additional licensing scheme remaining the same size.

What will be introduced?

Both the selective licensing scheme and additional licensing scheme will be introduced in April 2020, and will last for five years.

Selective licensing will be introduced in five targeted areas of the city (estimated to impact 3,664 properties). To see which areas of Newcastle will be in selective licensing areas, read more here.

As well as this, city-wide Additional Licensing scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation with 3 or 4 people sharing.

Consultation

Newcastle City Council launched a consultation on the licensing plans in January. The RLA responded to this consultation, and raised several concerns with the scheme including that criminal landlords will simply ignore the scheme.

• Read the Cabinet report from the Council here.
• To learn more about selective licensing, read the RLA’s guidance on this here.