Since Brent Council introduced its new landlord licensing schemes in November 2014 it has had over 5,000 online applications from landlords seeking to have their rental properties in the borough licensed.

Approximately 4,000 of these applications now approved and the council say their aim is to drive up standards in the private rental sector and better protect tenants from poor rental accommodation.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, Lead Member for Housing and Development at Brent Council said: "It is fantastic to reach this milestone of 5,000 applications but there are still many more rental properties in Brent that need a licence.

"We want to work with the good landlords to drive out the minority of bad ones and so I thank all of those landlords who have already shown their co-operation and submitted their applications to us.”

The licensing schemes were introduced in November 2014 and came into force on 1 January 2015. It is now a legal requirement for all 'Houses in Multiple Occupation' in Brent to be licensed and landlords caught without a licence will have to pay an extra £300 finders' fee and face being fined up to £20,000.

Several prosecutions have already taken place with a Mr Douglas Gerard-Reynolds being fined twice in respect of his unlicensed properties on Lechmere Road and Anson Road and ordered to pay over £10,000 in total.