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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has he made of the potential merits of introducing a national landlord register for the private rented sector in England.

The Government has no current plans to introduce a national landlord register, which could place an additional regulatory burden on landlords. The case would need to be made that such a register would drive up standards in the private rented sector. The Government is instead committed to improving the private rented sector by driving out criminal landlords and landlords who consistently neglect their responsibilities to provide safe and decent accommodation.

Local authorities already have a wide range of powers available to them including banning orders for the very worst offenders, civil penalties of up to £30,000 and a database of rogue landlords and property agents targeted at persistent and criminal offenders. To support the powers that local authorities already have we have provided £2.3 million in grant funding for local authorities to develop self-sustaining enforcement, released refreshed guidance for landlords, tenants and local authorities on their rights and responsibilities and carried out a review of selective licensing.