Articles

More homes in Gedling Borough to be made safer for residents following successful pilot in Netherfield

Date Posted: 10:19 AM on Mon, 26 September 2022

From November, a scheme to make privately rented homes safer for tenants, which currently operates in Netherfield, will be extended to four more parts of the borough.

Following consultation with residents, landlords and stakeholders, councillors agreed to extend the Selective Licensing Scheme to Colwick, Carlton Hill, Daybrook and Newstead Village, making it mandatory for landlords in those areas to have a licence for each of their privately rented properties.

The scheme has been extended to these new areas following a successful pilot launch in Netherfield where over 78% of the properties inspected needed work to bring them up to the legal standard required. Over 400 properties were inspected as part of the scheme and 10% of them needed urgent work to make them safe to live in, including removing imminent hazards in areas such as fire safety because of inadequate fire protection or detection, which all required immediate action to protect tenants.

The consultation for the extension of the scheme received more than 200 responses and over 450 written comments which have been analysed and the feedback used to shape the extension to the scheme, known as Selective Licensing Phase two.

The licence requires that landlords meet a minimum standard of accommodation for residents and the scheme is being launched in areas where there is deprivation, high levels of antisocial behaviour, crime and poor housing conditions. The licensing will give the council’s Environmental Health team powers to do more if landlords do not take the appropriate steps to deal with issues relating to property standards.

The scheme starts on November 1 and online application for landlords are now open at www.gedling.gov.uk/selectivelicensing. Landlords can also speak to council staff directly at two drop-in sessions at the Civic Centre in Arnot Hill Park on Monday 19 September from 12pm to 5pm and on Wednesday 21 September from 9am to 1pm. 

Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor John Clarke MBE said;

“A key priority for the council is to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents and reduce health inequalities and to do that it’s vital that our resident’s homes are safe and suitable.

Following the success of our pilot scheme in Netherfield, which saw a number of potentially lifesaving improvements carried out as a direct result of Selective Licensing, we’re extending the scheme to additional parts of the borough where we know standards of living could be improved.

We’ll work with landlords to make the necessary improvements to their properties to improve the lives and safety of their tenants and under the scheme we’ll be able to do more to step in to help even more residents and landlords if needed.”