More than 100 local authorities have reported that they have not prosecuted any rogue landlords at all in half a decade, new research reveals.
Freedom of information requests found that 115 councils in England and Wales – or 46% of the 252 respondents – confirmed that there were no prosecutions from April 2019 to March 2024.
A further 49 councils only sought court action against a single landlord in the five-year period, meaning just under two-thirds (164) did not undertake a court prosecution of multiple landlords.
According to Public Interest Lawyers, which carried out the research, in total there were over 1,260 reported prosecutions across this five-year period, working out at around one per 335 complaints the councils received from concerned tenants.
Tom Darling, director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, described the findings as ‘worrying’ and said the key problem councils are facing is a lack of resources ‘after years of rising costs and shrinking budgets.’
Responding to the findings, a spokesperson for the Local Government Association (LGA) said: ‘Everyone deserves a safe, decent, warm and affordable place to live and councils do everything they can to tackle bad practice and take action, as appropriate, to raise standards in the private rented sector [PRS].
‘However, many local enforcement teams do not currently have the resources and capacity to proactively tackle poor standards in the PRS.’
