Agenda item

10.1

It was formally moved by Councillor Richard Shaw, and formally seconded by Councillor Steve Ayris, that this Council:-

(a)      notes there are around 36,000 privately rented properties in Sheffield;

(b)      further notes that the number of people living in private rented accommodation in Sheffield has doubled over the last 10 years and continues to be on the rise;

(c)      notes that a lack of social housing properties, rising house prices and the difficulty in accessing mortgages, mean that many people, particularly the young or vulnerable, have no choice but to live in private sector rental accommodation;

(d)      believes that the rising demand for rented homes is pushing up costs and allowing some landlords and letting agents to take advantage of tenants who have relatively little power to object to high prices or poor conditions, or to make choices about which letting agent to use;

(e)      notes the Private Member’s Bill, proposed by Liberal Democrat Lord Baroness Olly Grender, the ‘Renter’s Rights Bill’ which proposes the Government adopt a number of measures to address that current imbalance of power between renter and landlord by:-

(i)       banning letting fees for renters;

(ii)      giving renters access to an open register of rogue landlords;

(iii)      bringing in compulsory electrical safety checks in rented homes; and

(iv)     preventing rogue landlords from obtaining an HMO licence; and

(f)       therefore, calls on the Administration to write to the Government to support the ‘Renter’s Rights Bill’.

10.2

Whereupon, it was formally moved by Councillor Jayne Dunn, and formally seconded by Councillor Lisa Banes, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of paragraphs (e) and (f) and the addition of new paragraphs (e) to (i) as follows:-

(e)     regrets that the policies of the previous coalition government were extremely detrimental to the development of social housing, with the huge increases in Right to Buy discount making it impossible for councils to reinvest receipts in replacing lost council housing stock;

(f)      welcomes the fact that the present Administration is building council houses for the first time in many years, and is introducing Housing +, to make sure that people in council housing receive the support they need;

(g)     welcomes the work of the present Administration and private rented sector team in making the following interventions in the private rented sector:-

(i)       licensing around 2,000 large shared houses (HMOs) across the city;

(ii)      the introduction of Selective Licensing, under which all the landlords have been trained, and have had the benefit of expert help and advice from Council officers;

(iii)      targeting the rogue landlords; noting that over the past 2 years they have prosecuted 24 landlords covering 80 separate offences in the courts;

(iv)     the award winning Snug partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and Hallam Student Union, which has meant 10,000 students are safer in their homes and this will increase when the University of Sheffield joins the scheme over the next year; noting that Sheffield is the only city in the country to have a scheme like this; and

(v)      being the first team outside of London to enforce the Redress Scheme for letting agents;

(h)     pledges to use all available powers through national legislation to support tenants and welcomes attempts to strengthen this, however, notes the following points:-

(i)       the law already requires agents to have ‘transparency of fees’ and we encourage all renters to get in writing what all the fees are; that way, they can make an informed choice about which agent to use; if any renter in the city believes that the agent is not providing this, they must get in touch with the team, and this will be dealt with in the proper way;

(ii)      the Housing and Planning Act 2016, provides Banning Orders, and a National Register of landlords that have been barred; this register will only be open to local authorities; we believe, as does Shelter, that this list should be more freely accessible;

(iii)      we agree with the need for compulsory electrical checks, and are pleased that this has already been introduced in the Housing and Planning Act; and

(iv)     we already prevent rogue landlords from obtaining an HMO licence, and we believe that we are the strictest council in the country for carrying out “Fit and Proper Person” tests on landlords and agents when they apply for a licence; in fact, we have even extended the test to landlords applying for Snug, those who help us with our homelessness duties, and those who help to house our clients with learning disabilities, and in the last 2 years, we have made 18 refusals on this basis, and a further 30 refusals for Snug; and

(i)       believes that these are all good examples of how our city is leading the way on the regulation of the private rented sector and is absolutely committed to making this sector a safe choice for every one of those renters in  Sheffield.

10.3

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

10.3.1

(NOTE: Councillors Magid Magid, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy and Alison Teal voted for paragraphs (e), (g), (h) and (i), and abstained from voting on paragraph (f) of the amendment, and asked for this to be recorded.)

10.4

It was then formally moved by Councillor Douglas Johnson, and formally seconded by Councillor Alison Teal, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the addition of three new paragraphs as follows:-

()       notes the drastic loss of Sheffield’s council housing stock through the right-to-buy policy and by Sheffield City Council’s large-scale demolition schemes;

()       also notes that, despite the misery of escalating private rents, landlords benefitted from £9.3 billion in housing benefit payments in 2014-15, double the sum from 10 years previously; and

()       therefore believes that increasing the supply of good quality council housing will save national expenditure.

10.4.1

(NOTE: With the agreement of the Council and at the request of the mover of the amendment (Councillor Douglas Johnson), the amendment as circulated at the meeting was altered so as to propose the three paragraphs as additional paragraphs to the substantive motion, and not to re-letter paragraphs (e) and (f) of the motion as new paragraphs (h) and (i), as those paragraphs had already been deleted by the passing of the previous amendment.)

10.5

On being put to the vote, the amendment was negatived.

10.6

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-

RESOLVED: That this Council:-

(a)      notes there are around 36,000 privately rented properties in Sheffield;

(b)      further notes that the number of people living in private rented accommodation in Sheffield has doubled over the last 10 years and continues to be on the rise;

(c)      notes that a lack of social housing properties, rising house prices and the difficulty in accessing mortgages, mean that many people, particularly the young or vulnerable, have no choice but to live in private sector rental accommodation;

(d)      believes that the rising demand for rented homes is pushing up costs and allowing some landlords and letting agents to take advantage of tenants who have relatively little power to object to high prices or poor conditions, or to make choices about which letting agent to use;

(e)      regrets that the policies of the previous coalition government were extremely detrimental to the development of social housing, with the huge increases in Right to Buy discount making it impossible for councils to reinvest receipts in replacing lost council housing stock;

(f)       welcomes the fact that the present Administration is building council houses for the first time in many years, and is introducing Housing +, to make sure that people in council housing receive the support they need;

(g)      welcomes the work of the present Administration and private rented sector team in making the following interventions in the private rented sector:-

(i)       licensing around 2,000 large shared houses (HMOs) across the city;

(ii)      the introduction of Selective Licensing, under which all the landlords have been trained, and have had the benefit of expert help and advice from Council officers;

(iii)      targeting the rogue landlords; noting that over the past 2 years they have prosecuted 24 landlords, covering 80 separate offences, in the courts;

(iv)     the award winning Snug partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and Hallam Student Union, which has meant 10,000 students are safer in their homes and this will increase when the University of Sheffield joins the scheme over the next year; noting that Sheffield is the only city in the country to have a scheme like this; and

(v)      being the first team outside of London to enforce the Redress Scheme for letting agents;

(h)      pledges to use all available powers through national legislation to support tenants and welcomes attempts to strengthen this, however, notes the following points:-

(i)       the law already requires agents to have ‘transparency of fees’ and we encourage all renters to get in writing what all the fees are; that way, they can make an informed choice about which agent to use; if any renter in the city believes that the agent is not providing this, they must get in touch with the team, and this will be dealt with in the proper way;

(ii)      the Housing and Planning Act 2016, provides Banning Orders, and a National Register of landlords that have been barred; this register will only be open to local authorities; we believe, as does Shelter, that this list should be more freely accessible;

(iii)      we agree with the need for compulsory electrical checks, and are pleased that this has already been introduced in the Housing and Planning Act; and

(iv)     we already prevent rogue landlords from obtaining an HMO licence, and we believe that we are the strictest council in the country for carrying out “Fit and Proper Person” tests on landlords and agents when they apply for a licence; in fact, we have even extended the test to landlords applying for Snug, those who help us with our homelessness duties, and those who help to house our clients with learning disabilities, and in the last 2 years, we have made 18 refusals on this basis, and a further 30 refusals for Snug; and

(i)       believes that these are all good examples of how our city is leading the way on the regulation of the private rented sector and is absolutely committed to making this sector a safe choice for every one of those renters in Sheffield.

10.6.1

(NOTE: 1. Councillors Richard Shaw, Joe Otten, Colin Ross, Martin Smith, Shaffaq Mohammed, Paul Scriven, Ian Auckland, Steve Ayris, David Baker, Penny Baker and Vickie Priestley voted for paragraphs (a) to (d) and (g) to (i), voted against paragraph (e), and abstained from voting on paragraph (f) of the Substantive Motion, and asked for this to be recorded.

2. Councillors Magid Magid, Douglas Johnson, Robert Murphy and Alison Teal voted for paragraphs (a) to (e) and (g) to (i), and abstained from voting on paragraph (f) of the Substantive Motion, and asked for this to be recorded.)