Tomorrow morning the county council’s cabinet will meet to discuss a range of issues, including on this occasion a performance management report which tracks the council’s progress against certain targets in the Council Plan, the Council Vision to 2035 and other strategic documents.
One of these aims relates to the number of properties across the county that have been signed up to the council’s Selective Licensing Scheme, established over a year ago to tackle issues relating to private-rented housing, with many properties in that sector abandoned and having a hugely negative impact on our streets and wider communities.
Full details on selective licensing for private sector housing and the impact it can have in bringing private properties back to a decent standard can be found here in a post dated Tuesday 7 December 2021: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-selective-licensing-scheme-for-county.html
Going through the performance management report on tomorrow’s cabinet agenda I was quite alarmed to note that only just over a quarter (28%) of all eligible properties have been signed up to the licensing scheme. Given that the programme is time-limited to 5 years there won’t be anywhere near sufficient time at this rate to register all the properties before it’s due for review and (potential) extension by government in 2027. And in the meantime the intended impact of selective licensing as a lever to improve the condition of private-rented sector properties in our towns and villages will not be able to take full effect.
As regular readers of these pages will know private sector housing and the impact empty and abandoned properties can have on our communities has been a continuing theme of the work we do in the community day in, day out. Clearly we can only be successful in tackling these issues if everyone pulls in the same direction. Unfortunately it looks as though some are dragging their heels instead.
For brief background information on private sector housing, selective licensing and other housing related issues please see posts from:
Monday 15 June 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/06/community-action-team-and-private.html
Thursday 25 June 2020: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2020/06/housing-issues-in-blackhall-colliery.html and
Tuesday 7 December 2021: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-selective-licensing-scheme-for-county.html
Scrutiny committee members will be following up on the figures reported in tomorrow’s cabinet report when it’s referred to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee this coming Friday morning.
Many of us have been fighting for years to bring order and regulation to private sector housing, particularly in the rented sector, and are not at all impressed with the glacial approach of the current Tory/Lib Dem cabinet to selective licensing and related housing issues across the county.
We spent years talking to residents, reporting housing problems and setting the scene for selective licensing to work - so don’t be surprised if there are demands for more stringent action to be taken by cabinet members to tackle the blight of poor housing conditions in the towns and villages of County Durham!
