The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32% since 2010.

According to new analysis by the Residential Landlords Association, the total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-led coalition government came to power.

The RLA is warning that the increase in legislation has not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and many councils are failing to properly use the powers they already have.

Previous research by the RLA found that in 2017/18, two-thirds of councils had not commenced any prosecutions against private landlords. In the same year, 89% of councils told the RLA they had not used new powers to issues Civil Penalties of up to £30,000 against private landlords for a range of offences, while over half (53%), did not have a policy in place to properly use the power.

Against a rising tide of regulation and poor levels of enforcement, the RLA is calling on all political parties in the election to commit to improving enforcement of the powers already available rather than introduce new legislation which councils will be unable to use to root out the crooks.