Issue - meetings

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 made provisions for Local Authorities to issue civil penalties for certain offences under the Housing Act 2004.  The Council introduced its first policy to enable this in May 2018, with further revisions made in March 2019.

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came into effect on June 1^st 2020. This regulation required all landlords to have a valid electrical safety certificate in much the same way as a gas safety certificate was required. Due to the introduction of an additional offence, the Policy required further updating to include this.

Members therefore gave consideration to a report which outlined these additional powers and gave an overview of other changes made and deemed necessary in order to further improve the policy and ensure it remained robust.   These were detailed at Section 3 of the report.

The report also provided high-level information of the penalties issued to-date under the Policy and further offences were anticipated following the introduction of this new legal requirement.

Debate ensued and Officers were again congratulated for their work.  It was acknowledged that the new regulations would be challenging particularly in older housing stock. Assurance was sought that any stock with which the Council had a direct association would be subject to the same checks including any Almshouses in the Council’s ownership.

It was confirmed that the small stock hold within the South West Ward, would be tested although the Council was not responsible for arranging the check.  All had scheduled inspections and Officers could provide the dates if needed.  Certificates once issued were active for five years.

With regard to Almshouses, Officers requested that the Member provide specific details of the properties. 

A point of information was offered from Vice-Chairman, Councillor Howitt Cowan, who served as a trustee for the Charles Cooper Almshouses.  He advised that the Almshouses within that particular Trust were most definitely not within the ownership of West Lindsey District Council. 

Officers re-iterated the offer to further look into the matter if specific details could be provided.

On being put to the vote it was

RESOLVED that   

(a)     the revised Civil Penalties Policy be approved; and

(b)     delegated authority be granted to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chairman of the Prosperous Communities Committee, to make minor housekeeping amendments to the Policy in the future.