Stewart Jackson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will include Peterborough in the areas involved in his Department’s proposals for dealing with rogue private rented sector landlords; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins

The overwhelming majority of private sector landlords are reputable and provide decent well maintained homes. This is demonstrated by high levels of satisfaction with over 83% of tenants happy with their accommodation. However, a small proportion of landlords neglect their properties and exploit their tenants forcing them to live in unsafe and overcrowded accommodation. We are cracking down on these rogue landlords and have provided £6.7 million to support local authorities with acute and complex problems, of which Peterborough received £70,000 to help them tackle problems associated with sheds and outhouses being used illegally as accommodation. The work on driving rogue landlords out of the sector is ongoing and will be supported, by the publication of updated guidance on the prosecution of rogue landlords later this year.