This year is on track to break 2023’s record for the most additional and selective licensing schemes launched across the UK.

Geospatial tech company Kamma reports that 11 new schemes are set to launch by April while there are eight active consultations, suggesting that 2024 will surpass last year’s 32 new schemes.

Already this year, six new licensing schemes have launched in Greenwich, Nottingham, Islington, Warwick, and Luton. London takes the lead with active consultations starting in Haringey, Lambeth, Waltham Forest, and most recently Bexley, all signalling a strong desire to implement new selective and additional licensing measures across the capital.

Luton has been the most recent council to implement new licensing schemes, with both additional and selective measures launching this week.

Fourteen schemes are also set to end this year, with a strong likelihood of scheme renewals, according to Kamma.

The impending Renters Reform Bill and calls for landlords to discontinue selective licensing schemes when the new landlord portal is introduced makes it highly likely that councils will push to renew these measures before the bill is passed.

Unprecedented

Newham council recently issued its first ever banning order to a landlord letting out an unlicensed property, emphasising the common trend for stronger enforcement against non-compliant agents and landlords in the face of unprecedented new schemes, says Kamma CEO Orla Shields (pictured).

She adds: “2024 is a pivotal year for property licensing in the UK. With a record number of new schemes and consultations, the landscape is shifting rapidly. Landlords and agents must be vigilant in ensuring that their properties are licensed.”

In the last few months, LandlordZONE has written about an impending new scheme in Scarborough, a consultation in Middlesborough, an expansion of Manchester’s scheme, and both Redbridge and Peterborough councils giving schemes the go-ahead.

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