Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 28 June 2023 to Question 21263 on Private Rented Housing, for what reasons he has maintained the requirement for Secretary of State approval for larger local authority selective licencing schemes.

All tenants should have access to a good quality and safe homes. Selective licensing is a targeted tool to improve standards and safety in the private rented sector in areas suffering from issues such as poor housing quality, levels of deprivation and anti-social behaviour. In the White Paper: A Fairer Private Rented Sector, we set out how we are going to reform the private rented sector to level up housing quality and increase the tools available to local authorities to crack down on poor quality, building on the powers already available, including selective licensing.

We continue to review the use of selective licensing via our approval process and engagement with local authorities. We will consider throughout the development of the private rented sector reforms how selective licensing will work with the new system. In the meantime, selective licensing remains an effective tool for local authorities to tackle issues in their local private rented sector.