A proposed licence fee for private housing landlords in part of Salford will be passed on to tenants if approved, a councillor has warned.
Salford council is planning to roll out a selective licensing scheme in the Kersal and Broughton Park wards of the borough, and launched a public consultation to gather feedback on the proposal.
It would see landlords pay £609 and help the council to keep a closer eye on the standards of housing in the areas, and impact more than 1,000 properties in total.
Read More: Landlords in Broughton & Kersal face new £600 licence fee
But Andrew Walters, a Kersal and Broughton Park councillor and leader of the Unwhipped Group in the council chamber, said the money would ultimately be passed on to tenants.
He has ‘called in’ the proposal, which will give councillors the opportunity to further scrutinise the plan.
Mr Walters said:
“The decision to spend £7,500 of public funds to do a consultation is premature whilst ward councillors have not been consulted or even informed of the proposal.
“The report is misleading and inaccurate and shows a lack of understanding of the idiosyncratic demographics of the area.
“Should the proposed selective licensing be implemented, it will be at the expense of tenants, does nothing to improve tenants’ conditions, discourages private landlords at a time where there is an insufficient supply of social housing, causes an unnecessary and stressful invasion of privacy to both tenants and landlords, and most importantly, does not represent the wishes of my constituents.”
Coun Robin Garrido, leader of Salford Conservatives, recently described the fee as “extortionate” and said that it would punish small scale landlords “who might own one or two houses.”
Salford council has paused its public consultation over the scheme before it is called in to scrutiny.
A spokesperson from the town hall said:
“We are working to agree a timescale for the plan for a consultation on selective licensing to go before the council’s scrutiny committee.
“The scrutiny committee is there to review and help develop the council policies and performance and it is where items can be debated.
“A decision will then be taken on whether the outcomes should be referred back to cabinet or the council meeting or not.
“Until the scrutiny meeting has taken place it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
