RLA - Regulations imposed on landlords increase by a third
The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32 percent since 2010.
An analysis by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), has revealed the total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government came to power.
The RLA has warned that the increase in legislation has not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and said many councils were failing to use the powers they already have.
Previous research by the association found that in 2017/18, two thirds of councils had not commenced any prosecutions against private landlords.
In the same year, 89 per cent of councils told the RLA they had not used new powers to issue Civil Penalties of up to £30,000 against private landlords for a range of offences. Some 53 per cent did not have a policy in place to properly use the power.
Due to this the RLA is calling on political parties in the general election to commit to improving enforcement of the powers already available rather than introduce new legislation.
In its manifesto for the general election, the RLA proposed getting rid of licensing schemes which it said "served only to penalise good landlords" while allowing "criminals" to operate unnoticed.
The association said along with the data already available to councils, this needed to be backed up by central government providing a multi-year funding settlement to resource enforcement.
David Smith, policy director for RLA, said: "Removing criminal landlords from the sector will only be achieved if councils have the resources and the will to properly use the wide range of powers they already have.
"Piling more regulations onto the sector which will continue not to be properly enforced is meaningless and serves only to put off good landlords from providing the homes to rent we need."
"It is time for smarter enforcement, not more regulation," he added.