The new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has moved to criticise former Mayor’s Boris Johnson’s handling of the London Rental Standard. This is an accreditation scheme for both landlords and letting agents.
Mr Khan has accused Johnson of, ‘being asleep at the wheel’ after he did not acknowledge repeated suggestions that the initiative would not hit targets.
The London Rental Standard
The scheme was announced four years ago, with the intention of signing up 100,000 landlords by 2016. However, data from City Hall shows that the scheme has actually accredited less than 2,000 landlords since its inception.
Mr Johnson allegedly ignored a claim that it would take in excess of 50 years to accredit enough landlords to reach the target. In addition, the former Mayor was told that there were insufficient resources to actively enforce the scheme.
Widely regarded as a failure, the London Rental Standard inherited only 13,300 landlords from previous schemes. As of March this year, the scheme had accredited just 1,845 new landlords.
London Rental Standard scheme slammed by Sadiq Khan
Plans
Talking at a visit to the Hackney Family Service on Tuesday, the new Mayor outlined his plans for the capital’s Private Rented Sector.
Mr Khan said that he was focusing on extending existing licensing schemes and outing so-called rogue landlords.
Khan said, ‘I am determined to get a grip on the private rented sector. I’ve met families who have had to move nearly a dozen times with their children because they can’t afford the rent or they have been treated terribly by their landlord. This is not good enough.’[1]
In addition, Khan said that his predecessor made little or no progress on improving the private rental sector.
[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/6/boris-knew-agent-accreditation-scheme-was-doomed-to-fail-says-new-mayor