Proposal
This proposal has now closed so we will not be accepting anymore comments at this time
The Council has the power to introduce ‘selective licensing schemes’ in areas of Manchester. In these areas private landlords, or their managing agents, would need to have a licence for each house that they rent out. To get a licence the landlord or managing agent would have to pay a fee set by us and meet certain standards which affect the way the property is managed.
See the licence fee and standards
We can introduce selective licensing where there’s one or more of these issues
- Low demand for houses – with few people wanting to live there
- Significant and persistent problems with antisocial behaviour
- Houses that are in a poor condition
- People who only rent houses for a short period of time
- High levels of crime
- Deprivation – examples include low income, poor health.
To make sure that selective licensing helps to improve the social or economic conditions, we want to introduce the scheme in areas of Clayton and Openshaw, Harpurhey, Gorton and Abbey Hey.
We believe that selective licensing will raise standards in the management of privately rented properties and improve the quality of houses. In turn this will:
- make more people want to live in the area
- make people want to stay in the area for longer
- cut the length of time houses are empty — increasing the rental income for landlords
- increase property values as the area improves
- reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.