Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Tony Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Communities (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval on re-designating an Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation within Rhyl and extending the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.

Vote taken: 7 in favour, 0 against, 0 abstentions

RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the re-designation of the Additional Licensing Scheme in Rhyl and extend the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.

Councillor Tony Thomas presented the report seeking Cabinet approval on re-designating an Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Rhyl and extending the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.

Some background was provided regarding the legislative provisions laid down by the Housing Act 2004 and the duties placed on local authorities to operate a mandatory licensing scheme for certain types of HMOs to ensure proper management and provision of suitable facilities and fire safety arrangements.  The Act also enabled local authorities to extend a licensing scheme to other categories of HMO to address particular problems and required that designation be reviewed every 5 years.  An additional licensing scheme for HMOs in Rhyl had been operating since 2010 (reviewed and extended by Cabinet in December 2014) and Cabinet approval was now sought to re-designate the Rhyl scheme and also to extend the designation to relevant properties in Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.  A number of elements for consideration had been detailed within the report including the criteria to be applied; justification and evidence for the additional licensing scheme; conditions to be imposed and the outcome of the formal consultation process on the proposals.

Officers responded to questions raised arising from the report as follows –

·         elaborated upon the reasoning behind the recommendations given the success of the scheme in Rhyl.  Based on the evidence provided it was considered that Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen would also benefit from the scheme given that those areas had the highest density of HMOs after Rhyl and had generated a greater number of service complaints and anti-social behaviour incidents

·         in terms of the capacity to administer and enforce the scheme it was considered existing staff resources should be sufficient to cover the additional areas but it would be dependent on the total number and condition of HMOs eligible for the scheme – if more resources were required than anticipated then the additional fees generated by the scheme were expected cover the additional cost

·         advised that some local authorities had introduced a county wide policy but it was not considered suitable for Denbighshire given the lack of sufficient evidence to justify that approach and the sufficiency of resources to administer it

·         acknowledged that St. Asaph had the next highest number of HMO stock but given the limited staff resources and available evidence to justify additional licensing it had been decided not to include St. Asaph in the scheme

·         it was thought opportune to consider extending the designation to other areas alongside the required five yearly review of the designation in Rhyl

·         reference was made to the tragic fire in Prestatyn in 2012 which may have been prevented had an additional licensing scheme been in place; whilst there had not been sufficient evidence at that time to justify additional licensing, more detailed statistics and supportive evidence was now available to make that case

·         elaborated upon the storage and disposal of refuse in terms of meeting the minimum licensing standards for HMOs together with both the tenants and landlords responsibilities in that regard – assurances were provided that support was available for vulnerable tenants in terms of meeting their obligations

·         in relation to ensuring compliance with the scheme assurances were given regarding the good working relationship with management and letting agencies and their positive engagement with the process and response to requests

·         explained the process for identifying eligible HMOs for additional licensing from various sources including RentSmart but acknowledged the difficulties in bringing rogue landlords into the scheme which was reliant on other intelligence.

Cabinet welcomed the report and considered that the current scheme in Rhyl had worked well and agreed that Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen could also benefit from additional licensing based on the evidence provided.

RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the re-designation of the Additional Licensing Scheme in Rhyl and extend the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.