The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is stepping up his support for London’s 2.4 million renters by funding a new qualification and training for local authority Housing Enforcement Officers.
The officers will clamp down on rogue landlords and agents, support vulnerable tenants and ensure rental properties are in a decent condition and meet safety standards.
Nearly a fifth of privately rented homes (18%) fail the government’s Decent Homes Standard and private renters in London are disproportionately likely to be defined as ‘vulnerable’, the Mayor’s office said.
Despite this, many boroughs lack the resources to tackle malpractice, improve standards and support private renters due to years of budget cuts from the government, they added.
A 2019 report from the trade union Unison, which represents council staff, found that environmental health budgets per head of population had more than halved over the previous decade.
The Mayor’s office said this is compounded by the fact that boroughs find it increasingly difficult to hire and retain appropriately qualified staff.
The new course, Advanced Private Sector Housing Regulation, aims to start to turn this tide and is a year-long level five qualification delivered by Middlesex University and accredited by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
Topics covered on the new course include:
- Introduction to law and governance.
- Housing and public health.
- Tenancy sustainment.
- Housing condition and intervention.
- Work based learning.
Its aim is to train those with little or no experience in environmental health or private rental housing get up to the standard needed to carry out the duties of a private rented sector Enforcement Officer to tackle rogue landlords.
The Mayor’s office said that council budgets have been squeezed over recent years, therefore have reduced their capacity to fund learning opportunities for their staff.
The new environmental health qualification is a key part of the Mayor’s ‘Better Renting’ programme, which aims to build skills and capacity across the capital’s private rented sector enforcement teams.
To date, 265 officers have been trained in courses commissioned by the Greater London Authority (GLA), including tenancy sustainment, supporting tenants in domestic abuse cases and gathering evidence for prosecutions.
Learners studying the qualification spend time both in the classroom and working in borough enforcement teams as Environmental Enforcement Officers.
They also develop tenancy sustainment skills to allow them to mediate and resolve issues between landlords and tenants, as well as better support tenants facing evictions and potential homelessness.
Commenting, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:
“Every single Londoner deserves a secure, safe and comfortable home. Nearly a fifth of London’s private rented accommodation doesn’t meet basic standards and it is clear that more needs to be done to support tenants.
“I want to see tougher penalties for rogue operators and this action can only come from the government.
“Poor housing conditions and exploitative rents have an awful impact on both the physical and mental health of tenants and these actions need to have consequences.
"With the cost-of-living spiralling, Londoners also need the government to give us the power to bring in rent controls, which May’s election gave us a clear mandate for.
“I also want to see boroughs empowered to stand up for tenants. This new qualification will give councils across London the workforce and expertise to mediate disputes, enforce standards and crackdown on the rogues who give the many honest operators in the sector a bad name.”
Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Dr Phil James said:
“We are delighted to work together with the Mayor of London to develop this important qualification.
“It should give London councils the route to train up members of their teams with the skills needed in order to support tenants, do more inspections of rented properties and to take more enforcement actions against unscrupulous landlords, who rent out dangerous and unhealthy homes in the city.
“Unfortunately, there are currently not enough qualified Environmental Health Practitioners for local authorities to recruit.
“We have been working hard to change this, both through our public facing campaigns like #ChooseEnvironmentalHealth, where we have been generating new interest in the profession.
"And our call to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to create a national apprenticeships fund for local authorities, to help local areas fund the cost of training up more Environmental Health Practitioners.”
You can watch the full PSE365 public sector leadership panel, and more, on demand here.
