Recommendation 15

The new regulatory regime will only become self-financing if local authorities can recoup the cost of enforcement from non-compliant landlords, but we have heard from local government representatives that the civil penalties regime, which in theory should fund enforcement activity, is currently not working for local authorities, and this is evident from the data on their use. We are also concerned by the apparent difficulty some local authorities experience when seeking to prosecute landlords for housing offences, including the claim that landlords can avoid prosecution by simply transferring ownership.