Councils should be allowed to determine which areas need landlord licensing!

8.43.00am GMT Fri 12th Mar 2010

Lib Dem Housing Spokesperson, Cllr Iain Donaldson, has written to the Housing Minister calling for local councils to be allowed to decide where and when they will use new licensing powers.

Cllr Donaldson stated that "The current system whereby local authorities must apply to central Government is cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive and does not meet the needs of either local authorities or long-term residents. "

It also fails to give any flexibility for local planning to tackle the problems created as landlords move their aspiration from one side of a street to another or just round the corner where the whole process has to start over again."

In Manchester we are seeing established communities being destroyed by the disproportionate number of houses in multiple occupancy and the dire shortage of family housing."

The scheme is being introduced following a long and hard campaign by WIthington Civic Society supported by Cllr Donaldson, Cllr Simon Wheale and John Leech MP.

Cllr Donaldson added that "It is only a pity that it has taken until the twilight years of this Labour Government for them to introduce this scheme that I first called for before they came to power 13 years ago."