Future of selective licensing in Scarborough to be discussed
The Borough Council's cabinet will make several decisions next week
Last updated 8th Feb 2023
The amalgamation of existing selective licensing schemes in Scarborough alongside the creation of a new licensing area could be approved by council leaders.
Scarborough Council’s cabinet will make several decisions on the future of selective licensing in the borough at an upcoming meeting on Tuesday, February 14.
Selective licensing is used by the council to regulate standards and improve property conditions within private rented accommodation with the use of inspections, enforcement, and information.
The senior councillors will vote on proposals to combine the existing Scarborough North and Central selective licensing schemes and to conduct a public consultation on the creation of a licensing scheme for Scarborough Town.
The authority says that selective licensing has led to 100 per cent of licensed properties having been inspected at least once and has led to hundreds of serious safety issues being identified and dealt with in addition to almost 5,000 other issues being identified.
The licensing has also led to “prosecutions against landlords, who have failed to apply for a licence, failed to comply with licensing conditions or failed to bring their properties up to required standards”.
The Scarborough Central selective licensing scheme will come to an end in May 2024 while the Scarborough North designation ended in June last year.
A report on the amalgamation of the two licensing schemes states that “rather than looking to renew each designation in isolation, there is an opportunity to combine the two initial designations into one overall scheme”.
Meanwhile, another report sets out the authority’s consultation plan for the proposed designation of “a selective licensing scheme for privately rented housing in the Scarborough Town area”.
Those to be consulted about the proposed new licensing scheme would include all local residents and businesses within the proposed area, private landlords, letting agents, community groups, and local ward members.
There are approximately 3,500 households within the proposed area and adjoining streets and a questionnaire will be sent to every household, according to the authority.
The plan also proposes that the consultation, which would last from May until August, takes a variety of formats including the questionnaire, one-to-one meetings, and community drop-in sessions.
The council states that “without licensing, it is highly likely that a number of these landlords would continue to operate in an unacceptable manner and put their tenants and residents at risk”.
The report concludes that the introduction of licensing appears to have had “no negative impact on the property market within the licensing area” despite concern having been expressed by landlords and adds that “changes which have happened within the housing market in the last two years have been largely driven by the impacts of the Covid pandemic”.
Approval to create a new scheme following a consultation will be made by the new North Yorkshire Council following April’s local government reorganisation.