Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
The Department is not doing enough to support local authorities to regulate effectively.
Conclusion
The Department is not doing enough to support local authorities to regulate effectively. The dozens of legislative powers used by local authorities are complex and spread across multiple enforcement bodies, creating a fragmented and disempowered regulatory system. Local authorities say that they could regulate better with more support and sharing of good practice, but the Department is not sufficiently proactive at providing this. The Department does not have a good enough understanding of what regulatory approaches work at local level to help local authorities ensure that landlords comply with their obligations. The Department also does not know what challenges local authorities are facing, and lacks an early warning system to identify where local regulation is failing private renters. The Department could learn lessons from other areas of consumer protection (such as Trading Standards services), where a national team provides intelligence and support to local regulators. Recommendation: The Department should take a more proactive approach to supporting local regulators and sharing good practice. To do so, it should learn from other consumer protection systems that provide central intelligence and support to local regulators.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 3.2 The department recognises the value in sharing good practice across LAs and have supported them to develop their approaches to driving up standards through e.g., roadshows. The department has reinvigorated its engagement programme with LAs and will continue to expand its reach across England to design and implement its reforms. 3.3 The government will support local councils to crack down on poor practices and enforce this new standard and explore different ways of working with landlords to speed up adoption of the Decent Homes Standard. 3.4 The government will: • run pilot schemes trialling improvements to enforcement of existing standards • strengthen LAs’ ability to tackle criminal landlords including seeking to increase financial investigative powers. • bolster national oversight of LAs’ enforcement by requiring them to report on their enforcement activity will also be explored. • seek to introduce a national framework for setting fines to drive a more consistent approach to setting fines building on best practice of local authorities. • continue to fund the National Trading Standards Estates and Lettings Agency Team to deliver guidance and training to LAs’ enforcement teams and their roll-out of the Intelligence Database project enabling effective collaboration and intelligence sharing. 3.5 The Private Rented Property Portal will provide access to information about privately rented properties helping LAs deliver more targeted enforcement. 3.6 The government will work with LAs to share selective licensing schemes best practice. 3.7 The department has engaged with other government departments during the development of the reform package set out in ‘A Fairer Private Rented Sector’ and will continue to use learning from other consumer protection systems while implementing these reforms.