Hello readers,

Back in April, I wrote about additional and selective licensing and how Medway Council was proposing to extend private sector licensing to all properties in the proposed wards of:

• Chatham Central
• Brompton
• Fort Pitt
• Gillingham North
• Gillingham South
• Luton
• Strood North
• Frindsbury
• Watling

I have now read the outcome of the consultation and the minutes of the cabinet meeting on 4^th August, and it is noted that the scheme has been approved, with implementation no less than three months after the decision date.

Interestingly, I have had sight of the Medway Council website that stated landlords can apply for a license from 27^th October, but that has now since been removed. I don’t doubt that this was an admin error and I will be keeping a close eye on it!

I thought I would include a probably unsurprising chart below, that outlines how a large proportion of landlords, letting or managing agents disagree with the proposals here and it’s no surprise. The proposal talks about partnering with landlords, but it seems that, from this outcome, landlords have been completely ignored!

The scheme has been rolled out with a view to increasing the quality of housing, but the problem is I struggle to see apart from paying a hefty fee to upload compliance paperwork what benefit tenants will actually receive apart from having less in their pockets through higher rents (interestingly, the risk of costs being passed on and landlords exiting was stated in the analysis as a likely concern of major impact!).

Looking through the risk register, the council simply having operational capacity has been highlighted as the most significant risk – noted as being likely and of critical impact.

For landlords, this will simply be another cost they needs to be covered. I have outlined the costs below, and you will see that for those with multiple properties there is some form of discount.

Ultimately, this is an annual fee of around £168 (£14 per month) per single let property and around £320 (£26 per month) per HMO. The crazy thing is however, that I very much doubt the council will inspect before issuing – so it will simply be, upload paperwork, checked and approved then pay your fee.

I thought it might be interesting to look at some analysis of other areas where licensing has been implemented and see the stated outcomes. You will see how they actually seem to be fairly positive.

Area	Licensing experience	Evidence/outcomes
Newham	One of the earliest large-scale schemes, starting in 2013	Licensing helped identify unlicensed and unsafe properties, with substantial enforcement activity. Newham’s PRS continued to be very large despite licensing. (Newham Council)
Liverpool	City-wide selective licensing previously, followed by a more targeted scheme	Liverpool reported that the PRS represented around 32% of its housing stock when proposing its later scheme. It acknowledged that licence costs could potentially be passed into rents, but this was presented as a potential impact rather than evidence that rents had actually risen because of licensing. (Liverpool City Council)
Nottingham	Large selective, additional and mandatory licensing programme	A 2026 evaluation covering 2020 to 2024 reported 35,000 licensed homes, 30,600 inspections and 14,536 tenants living in properties improved following inspection. It also reported a 48% reduction in ASB complaints and 45% reduction in waste complaints. (Local Government Association)
London more broadly	Multiple boroughs introduced selective licensing between 2012 and 2018	A peer-reviewed study found reductions in area-level mental-health problems and ASB calls, but also an increase in population turnover. The researchers specifically said they could not rule out mechanisms including landlords selling, rents being increased or wider gentrification. (BMJ Open)

Something that I did find interesting was looking at the data of rents for these areas, as whilst the initial outlay yes is significant – the evidence is that rents did not shoot up as a result. I have compiled the table below to compare to other local areas where licensing was not implemented.

Area	Licensing introduced	Rent change examined	Comparable areas	What happened	Evidence licensing increased rents?
Liverpool	2015	£450 → £525, +16.7%	St Helens +15.8%, Wirral +15.0%	Rent growth was very similar to neighbours	Weak
Newham	2013	Rents rose substantially	Wider London and neighbouring boroughs also rose strongly	Large increase initially, but later Newham rent growth was slower than several comparators	Inconclusive
Nottingham	2018	~£650-700 → £1,009	East Midlands	Rents increased, but current growth is below the regional rate	Weak / inconclusive
Medway	Proposed	£1,234 currently	N/A	Licensing hasn’t started	Unknown

Having gone into this fairly sceptical, I actually found the evidence from other licensing areas more interesting than I expected. There are examples of improved property standards, greater enforcement and reductions in issues such as anti social behaviour, while the evidence that licensing itself has caused significant rent increases or a mass exodus of landlords is much less convincing.

That doesn’t mean the cost disappears. For landlords, this is another expense at a time when the cost of operating in the PRS continues to increase, and I expect many will factor some or all of it into their rents over time. The bigger question for me is whether the scheme delivers enough improvement to justify that additional cost.

What I suspect we will see over the next 6 to 12 months is landlords becoming increasingly selective about where they invest their money, particularly where properties require significant additional expenditure to meet licensing requirements.

The real test will come once the scheme is operating. How many properties are actually inspected? How many hazards or non-compliant properties are identified? How much enforcement takes place? And, ultimately, do tenants see a meaningful improvement in the quality of the homes they rent?

I’ll keep you posted with a further bulletin as soon as there is a confirmed application date and link, as well as sharing my experience of supporting the landlords I look after at Home Share through the process.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this. The best way to contact me is by emailing hasan@home-share.co.uk.

Hasan