The Strategic Housing Services Senior Manager presented the report on behalf of the Director of Regeneration and Place which stated its purpose was to seek approval of a revised Wirral Borough Council Housing Standards Enforcement Policy, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report. The Council’s current overarching enforcement policy was approved by Policy and Resources Committee on 17th July 2024.

The policy provided guidance to Members, officers, property businesses, and the public, on:

• the Council’s objectives;

• options available to achieve compliance; and

• criteria to be considered by the Council when deciding the appropriate response to a breach of housing standards.

The revised policy also provided the Council’s Housing Standards service with a strategic delivery framework, which included working with third parties, internal and external agencies, with the expectation of establishing enhanced procedures and resourcing to deliver the requirements of the Policy.

The Housing Standards Enforcement Policy had been drafted to be read alongside the Council’s Corporate Enforcement Policy providing more technical detail.

Members asked whether the rent repayment orders mentioned in the report were available to private renters and those on benefits.

The Strategic Housing Services Senior Manager replied that it was available to all renters. She noted that the Council would intervene with landlords that were paid via benefits, whereas private renters would have recourse to make their own applications for rent repayment and the housing team were available to give advice to this. She explained that for those renters that paid via benefits, the rent repayment would be received by the local authority as the payer.

Members questioned whether Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) received a special focus regarding enforcement activity.

The Housing Standards Manager responded that HMOs did receive a special focus in the same way that those properties within a Selected Licensing area and schools did. They receive a 3 year license and officers aimed to inspect all properties covered by this license so that they could intervene if any contraventions were found.

Members queried whether the enforcement policy would put additional workload on the housing team and if they had the capacity for this.

The Strategic Housing Services Senior Manager responded that the enforcement policy allowed for the issuing of civil penalty notices instead of more time consuming and costly court cases, she also noted that any profits made via penalty notices could be reinvested into the team.

Members noted that the Renters Rights Bill had not been passed into statute at this point and queried whether the enforcement policy might need to be redrafted if amendments were made to the Bill.

Strategic Housing Services Senior Manager replied that the Renter Rights Bill was due to be enacted within first half of 2025 and the first aspects to be brought into law were likely to be around tenancy protections. They were confident that the team could adapt as needed.

The Director and Members thanked those officers involved with the Housing Enforcement Policy for their work and for brining it forward so quickly.

Resolved – That the Housing Standards Enforcement Policy and associated Civil Penalty, Rent Repayment and Banking Order policies as contained within appendix 1 of the report be approved.