BRITAIN'S RACIST AND RIP-OFF LANDLORDS

The Rachman era returns

Forget the market-rigging bankers, the phone-hacking journalists and the bribe-taking police. What about the rip-off landlords who bring shame on Britain? Yesterday, two shocking bits of news came to light.

First, the London borough of Brent announced its crackdown on “Beds in Sheds”. In the past three years the council has issued 84 planning enforcement notices against home-owners who rented out their garden sheds to desperate tenants, so now it wants to put a stop to this exploitation once and for all.

Second, it turns out many landlords are racists – a BBC investigation of London and Birmingham landlords has found some choose tenants on the basis of race. For example, their adverts say tenants “Must be Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian” or “Filipino only” or “Sri Lankan professional couples”. The BBC and Letting Agent Today ask whether these landlords are breaking the law? Well, if they aren't, then they darn well ought to be. Weren't the days of “No dogs, no blacks, no Irish” supposed to be long gone?

Britain's landlords are developing a shocking reputation. Increasingly the worst among them make headlines for the wrong reasons – intimidating tenants, operating dangerous boilers in rental properties, evicting tenants to replace them with higher paying Olympics visitors are some examples of their outrageous behaviour. No wonder the London Borough of Newham and the Welsh government want landlords licensed. That way the Rachmanesque among them can be weeded out.

Yes, many landlords are decent human beings who provide decent accommodation at a decent price. But the private lettings market is becoming so tainted by criminality, incompetence and greed, that it is time for decent landlords to stand up and take action against their corrupt peers. The National Landlords Association's Code of Practice whilst laudable is not enough. The body should support landlord licensing or, at least, a landlords register to professionalise the sector fully. Scotland has a landlords register and limited licensing system. Time to extend that across the rest of the United Kingdom.