Private Rented Sector Licensing and Inspection

Description

The Council currently operates a licensing scheme under the housing Act 2004 for larger houses in multiple occupation with 5 or more occupants, this is the national mandatory licensing scheme.  Approximately 1,400 properties are licenced (or in the process of being licenced) on this scheme.
The Housing Act contains provisions for the Council to designate discretionary licensing schemes, additional licensing to cover smaller houses in multiple occupation and selective licensing to cover all rented properties, within a designated area. 
The evidence to support introduction of discretionary licensing scheme was gathered through a Boroughwide Stock Condition Survey.  The main features of 	the Stock Condition Survey included:  
o	Reading’s Private rented Sector (PRS) is now calculated to be 39.9% of all housing stock. 
o	The PRS in Reading is distributed across all 16 wards. 
o	Reading has a mixture of high and low deprivation wards. 8 of 16 wards have aggregated IMD rankings below the national average. 
o	Reading has a lower proportion in fuel poverty (10.3%) than the national average. 
o	There are 4,297 private rented properties in Reading that are likely to have at least 1 serious housing hazard distributed across all wards. 
o	Reading Borough Council recorded 3,117 complaints and service requests from private tenants and others linked to PRS properties over 5-years. 
o	1,084 PRS properties are likely to fail the basic energy efficiency requirement. 
o	Reading's house in multiple occupation (hmo) population has been estimated to comprise a total of 3,272 properties. 
o	Analysis shows that 1,230 hmos in Reading are predicted to have at least one serious hazard. 
o	During inspections, officers identified 701 Category 1 and 2 hazards (HHSRS). 
The full survey and accompanying report can be found in the papers for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure Committee - Wednesday, 21st February, 2024 6.30 pm at democracy.reading.gov.uk 2.1.6	Following the stock condition report a statutory consultation exercise was completed in June-August 2024, which is published online at https://reading.govocal.com/en-GB/projects/prsconsultation
The outcome of the consultation was a decision to proceed with the designation of both additional and selective licensing schemes.  A further decision was made to seek a delivery partner to administer the scheme.  This tender seeks a delivery partner, to support additional (hmo) licensing and selective licensing designations in Reading under the Housing Act 2004 parts 2 and 3.
The Council has delegated powers to officers to designate four discretionary licensing schemes
Additional hmo licensing scheme for smaller houses in multiple occupation (3-4 occupants). This would cover the whole Borough, equating to around 1600 properties. Section 257 hmos divided into self-contained flats are not proposed to be covered in the designation
Selective licensing of all rented properties in Battle ward, to the west of Reading town centre.  This is estimated to cover approximately 1800 properties.	Selective licensing of all rented properties in Park ward, to the east of Reading close to the university.  This is estimated to cover approximately 1500 properties.	Selective licensing of all rented properties in Redlands ward, to the east of Reading close to the university and adjacent to Park ward.  This is estimated to cover approximately 1900 properties.
 The estimated number of properties is based upon 80% of the predicted number of licensable properties identified in the stock condition report. 
 A further delegation has been received to enter into a 5 year contract with the possibility of a 2 year extension to implement the schemes outlined in 3.2.1 and 3.2.2.  Further extensions are subject to approval.
The designations are proposed to be made to tackle the areas /sectors with the worst property conditions within the borough in particular relating to hazards and property conditions. The proposed selective licensing designations are proposed to be made on the ground of poor property conditions.	Full details of the scope and requirements can be found in the Specification at Annex 1. The tender documents contain proposals for the required services (including application processing, inspections and compliance monitoring) and provision of software for this tender.