A Sheffield councillor has called for the introduction of a landlord licensing scheme across the city.

A pilot scheme ran in the area around Abbeydale Road, London Road and Chesterfield Road from 2018 until 2023.

Minesh Parekh, a Labour councillor for Crookes and Crosspool, said the result of that scheme was ‘staggering’.

“It prosecuted a number of landlords who were failing to deliver safe conditions.

“It forced landlords to make hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of the improvements to properties and gave hundreds, if not thousands, of renters better safer conditions.

“I think that’s an overwhelming success.”

Similar programs are already in place in other towns and cities in Yorkshire.

Rotherham Council renewed their own landlord licensing scheme earlier this month.

The councillor added he was motivated by his own experience.

“When I was living in student housing in Crookes in my fourth year, the kitchen ceiling fell in early on in living there so that we had to keep a bucket underneath because water leaked through every time we showered.

“It took the landlord six months to do anything about that leak.

“It’s a Wild West housing market.”

However, the scheme isn’t without its detractors.

68% of residents and tenants in Rotherham disagreed with the council continuing the licensing in a public consultation.

In the report following Sheffield’s selective licensing scheme, no further recommendations were made to continue it.

It’s also not without controversy.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has come under fire this week after failing to apply for a permit when she rented out her London home after moving into 11 Downing Street last year.

The MP for Leeds and Pudsey West has previously campaigned for the introduction of selective landlord licenses.

Sheffield City Council has an existing accreditation scheme for student landlords called Snug, which it promotes alongside the city’s universities.

But Cllr Parekh found that in the last census, out of the 1,980 private rented houses in his ward, only 32 of them were covered by the scheme – about 1%.

“Part of the challenge is we need students to be writing to the council.

“Private housing tenants need to say: ‘this has happened to me’, ‘my boiler hasn’t been repaired’, ‘there were rats here’ or ‘there’s mould on my walls’.

“If the council had better data, it would realise the scale of the issue.”

He believes any new scheme should include rent controls, a requirement of yearly inspections of properties and banning criminal landlords from being able to rent out a house.

“It puts a duty on the landlord to ensure the house is fit for human habitation, which is exactly what people deserve.

“But for some reason, in large areas of the city that’s been normalised as a typical student experience – ‘you live somewhere for three years, you might have more issues, but your rent is cheaper and that’s fine’.

“I think the message needs to be that’s not fine.

“Those landlords are exploiting people for profit and causing harm to their lives.

“And that can be stopped and it must be stopped.”