Hundreds of residents made safer at home in licencing scheme

Hundreds of residents have been made safer in their homes after a five-year licencing scheme helped remove safety hazards from nearly 500 properties.

Between 2018 and 2023, Sheffield City Council and partner organisations delivered a Selective Licencing designation which required private landlords to ensure their rental properties were safe and well managed and complied with the licence standards.

The designation was in place on London Road, Abbeydale Road and Chesterfield Road to the south and south east of the city centre.  Landlords operating in the area had to apply for a licence and all properties were inspected to ensure they met the licence conditions and were free from hazards. Where hazards were identified, the landlords carried out works to remove them to ensure tenant safety and compliance with licence conditions.

During the scheme’s five-year duration, 472 rental properties were licenced. Inspections identified 492 safety hazards in 46% of those properties – 29% of which were related to fire safety.

With those hazards rectified, around 800 people now live in safer homes.

The Council worked with landlords to ensure compliance, but where this was not achieved enforcement action was taken. This resulted in 65 financial penalties being served and seven prosecutions taken for offences under the Housing Act 2004.

Cllr Douglas Johnson, Chair of the Housing Committee, said:

“This was a complicated scheme that required a lot of hard work to get these successes. It’s brilliant to know this has resulted in people being safer in their homes.

“Safety at home is vitally important and as well as the obvious physical benefits can also add to people’s wellbeing with the knowledge their homes are more secure.

“We’d like to thank all those we worked with to make this possible. I’m proud of the work that has been done and proud of the successes they have achieved.”