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17/12/25 3:30 pm
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Great Yarmouth landlords have won the backing of their local MP in a campaign to pause the council’s upcoming selective scheme.
Eastern Landlords Association (ELA) is considering taking legal action in a bid to pause the scheme, which is due to launch on 1st April. In the meantime, it has written to Great Yarmouth Council and Housing Secretary Steve Reed in the hope they will consider other options.
It has also urged the government to pause all proposed selective licensing schemes across the country pending the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act to ensure legislation doesn’t overlap.
It follows similar legal bids by landlords in Leeds and Thurrock and indicates the growing groundswell of opinion against local authority schemes.
Independent MP Rupert Lowe (pictured left) believes the new scheme in Great Yarmouth will treat landlords unfairly. In a Facebook post he says: “They will simply sell their houses, driving up rent and even opening the door to HMOs being bought up. The council’s scheme is poorly thought out. It won’t work, and it won’t deliver for tenants or landlords.”
The scheme will cover 5,000 homes in Nelson Ward, Central and Northgate Ward, Southtown and Cobholm Ward and eight streets in Great Yarmouth’s North Ward.
In December, the ELA managed to convince the council to cut its proposed selective licensing fee from £784 to £694 and reduce the number of inspections to twice a year, rather than four times as previously proposed.
However, the group wants to go further, and in a letter to the council, chairman Paul Cunningham (main picture) says the authority has not clearly stated its objectives and only used inaccurate and out-of-date modelling data.
The group also believes the council has made no meaningful or detailed information available regarding how the scheme will help the improvement of poor housing and says it has already confirmed the existing scheme has failed. It adds that it has not shared any other meaningful action that the authority itself will be taking to improve the area.
“This scheme, along with the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act, the increased taxation on property income and other legislative measures, are likely to increase the cost of letting in Great Yarmouth by between £44-£71 a month per home, just to cover the cost of additional legislation and taxation,” says Cunningham. “This does not include an inflationary rent rise, increased mortgage costs, as more and more landlords come off pre 2022 rate rise, fixed mortgage rates. Combined, this could cost tenants up to £100+ a month more.”
A council spokesman tells LandlordZONE it has followed nationally recognised best practice when producing the scheme.
He adds that the public consultation was transparent and very well participated in. “The council considered the views of more than 275 respondents before producing its proposal. The consultation saw the council make a number of changes to the proposal – including reducing the cost to landlords.
“Selective licensing schemes already operate successfully across wide parts of the country, and no one should lose sight of the fact that the only purpose of introducing a scheme is to improve the quality of housing for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. Good landlords have nothing to fear from a scheme, wherever they operate, and the council is confident its proposal meets all the necessary legal requirements for its introduction.”
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