A letting agent trade body is accusing the government of failing to protect tenants by abandoning regulation of the private rental sector.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) claims the government is not doing enough to help tenants by making councils rely on selective licensing powers under the Housing Act in a confused statement issued today.

ARLA says their research shows 12 out of 400 local councils have introduced selective licensing to date, and the councils operating selective licensing have prosecuted just 15 landlords for flouting licensing requirements.

The statement fails to point out that selective licensing only applies to shared houses in multiple occupation (HMO), which make up a small percentage of the housing stock in the private residential sector.

The government reversed the outgoing government’s policies on regulating the housing sector by introducing landlord registration and letting tenants rate their landlords online as unnecessary, expensive and pointless.

As an example, landlord registration is compulsory in Scotland, where 19 landlords have had their registration revoked in four years while administering the scheme has cost £16.7 million, according to a report by the Scottish Association of Landlords to the Scottish Assembly in April.

This report is not mentioned in the ARLA statement.

Prosecutions of landlords under HMO licensing rules are currently running at about one a week in the UK.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps takes the view that councils have adequate powers to tackle bad landlords and that in a sector servicing 3 million renters, it’s more than likely some landlords are likely to be breaking the law – as much as it’s likely tenants are mistreating their homes and not paying their rent.

The figures would seem to support the government view – the relatively low number of prosecutions and councils taking up special powers would suggest the front line people on the ground dealing with housing issues do not consider regulating the private rental sector a priority.

Looking at the prosecutions also shows they generally arise from complaints from tenants rather than pro-active investigations by councils – so if so many landlords are breaking the law, why don’t more tenants complain?

Perhaps the reason for the ARLA statement is that the group has an undeclared self-interest in regulating the sector as an unofficial trade body for letting agents.

Ian Potter, of ARLA, said: “ARLA’s research highlights the low number of prosecutions and the inconsistent means by which selective licensing is enforced, and the need for a national scheme to regulate the private rental sector.

“The government’s argument that selective licensing allows local authorities to deal with the problem of rogue landlords does not stand up to scrutiny.  Only a small number of local authorities operate selective licensing schemes and these have led to few prosecutions for those landlords who do not carry out their obligations.

“We again urge the government to re-examine selective licensing, and as a bare minimum, strengthen the obligations of local authorities and landlords to provide adequate protection for tenants in the private rented sector.”