The government is drilling local councils over civil penalty fines to work out how much they will need to enforce the Renters’ Rights Act.

In response to a Parliamentary question, Housing Minister Baroness Taylor admitted that it didn’t know how many civil penalties had been handed to landlords and how many had been paid.

She said a new mandatory collection of PRS enforcement data from local councils would include the number of civil penalties issued and total income collected; until now, the government has had to rely on Freedom of Information requests or ad hoc reporting to understand enforcement activity.

Recent FOI requests by the NRLA from 285 councils found that between 2023/24 and 2024/25, 3,695 civil penalties worth £30 million were handed to private landlords, but just £7.5 million was collected.

Skills

Justice for Tenants reports that many council officers don’t currently have the time or necessary skills to produce notices; while differing penalties can be handed out for the same offence.

Taylor added that the department was conducting an assessment of the new burdens on local authorities because of their additional enforcement responsibilities under the Act. She said: “We are committed to funding the net additional costs arising. We anticipate that additional costs will principally be additional staff costs.”

Admitted

The government has previously admitted that it doesn’t know how many council staff have responsibility for PRS enforcement, but that its research would include the number of full-time equivalent staff responsible.

It has announced £18 million in ‘burdens funding’ to help authorities prepare for enforcing the Renters’ Rights Act, and last month announced another £50 million to support councils with new responsibilities.

However, there is ongoing debate about whether it will be sufficient, and the Local Government Association has told LandlordZONE that councils face significant challenges to their finances and workforce, and this is having an impact. As such they are looking at the best methods of deploying the resources they have to be most effective.

‍