Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of rogue landlords that will be included in the rogue landlord database; and how many have been registered to date.

A Justice Impact Test was prepared to accompany the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to support the Ministry of Justice in its planning. At that time it was estimated that local authorities could enter up to 5,000 rogue landlords and property agents onto the database, including up to 600 (12%) mandatory entries for those in receipt of a banning order and so banned from letting. The government does not have a current estimate of the number of rogue landlords but expects the number to be decreasing because of the strong enforcement powers that we have introduced since 2015 to enable local authorities to drive criminal landlords out of the market.

There are no entries to date on the database. This was expected as an offence must have been committed on or after 6 April 2018, a conviction secured and the period for an appeal passed, before an offender’s details can be listed on the database.