Proposals to make it easier for London boroughs to introduce landlord licensing schemes will do nothing to root out criminal landlords. That’s the warning from the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) in response to a new report on housing in the capital.

The London Housing Commission recommends that Ministers should give boroughs the power to create their own landlord licensing schemes, but the RLA argues that such schemes are a waste of time and money since criminal landlords who cause misery for tenants never make themselves known. Ministers have also previously dubbed licensing schemes as a: ‘tenants’ tax’.

Instead, the RLA is calling for councils across London to use the powers already available to have the large majority of good landlords regulated by a single, robust industry-run scheme leaving authorities free to better target criminal landlords who operate under the radar.

Commenting on the recommendation, RLA Chairman, Alan Ward said: “We all want to see criminal landlords rooted out of the sector but making licensing easier for councils is not the answer. No criminal landlord ever makes themselves known willingly. Licensing only increases the time councils spend administering the scheme when they could instead be devoting those resources to finding criminal landlords.”