The UK’s property trade association, Propertymark, has called on local councils to drop selective and additional landlord licensing schemes after the national landlord register begins in December 2026. Their argument rests on evidence that existing local systems impose extra costs on landlords without delivering clear enforcement advantages.
The national register, which will roll out in the West Midlands first before covering all of England, will mandate registration for every landlord actively renting properties. Propertymark insists councils should depend on this unified database rather than maintaining separate local records, which force landlords to resubmit paperwork and pay additional fees for information already collected centrally.
Fees under selective licensing can exceed £1,000 per property in some areas, with extra charges from additional schemes pushing annual costs for multi-property landlords into tens of thousands. The trade body also notes enforcement failures: two-thirds of English councils did not prosecute a single landlord in the past three years, despite handling roughly 300,000 annual complaints about property conditions.
Staffing shortages worsen the problem, as 84% of councils report difficulties hiring environmental health officers—the specialists needed for inspections and enforcement actions. To address this, Propertymark has proposed setting a national limit, capping administrative expenses at 20% of licensing revenue. This would require councils to justify how funds support inspections and enforcement rather than bureaucratic overhead.
Tim Thomas, Propertymark’s Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer, stated that landlords should see a direct connection between fees and measurable improvements in local housing standards. He emphasized that enforcement, not bureaucratic expansion, should remain the focus, particularly since councils already possess powers to address unsafe housing.
Though the national register promises to simplify data management, its effectiveness hinges on councils using it to focus on high-risk landlords instead of expanding registration requirements further. The transition could ease administrative strain, yet landlords will still confront broader regulatory demands, including rising compliance costs in a tight rental market.
The trade body warns that without reforms, councils may exploit the new system to increase fees rather than improve housing quality. Propertymark’s push for stricter oversight of licensing spending aims to ensure funds benefit tenants and property standards rather than council budgets.