What is the health impact of selective licensing schemes for the PRS in England?

Photograph by Debbie Humphry

Leading researchers at the Selective Licensing Evaluation offer a glimpse into their research ahead of their highly anticipated session at the CIEH Housing and Health Conference.

The private rented housing sector has been attracting concern across England for a long time. It has worse quality housing compared to owner occupied and social rented sectors – with around 1 in 4 private rented homes estimated to be ‘non decent.’

Environmental problems present serious hazards to tenant health. Yet the number of people reliant on private renting for their housing has grown, and this includes many disadvantaged and vulnerable tenants including children.

The Selective Licensing Evaluation is a consortium of researchers who have been evaluating the health and social impacts of selective licensing schemes on tenants and the wider community. We are doing this because we recognise that such schemes may improve homes and so improve the health of vulnerable tenants.

A brief introduction to our findings

Our BMJ Open study of selective licensing in London found evidence of wider community benefits for mental health and anti-social behaviour outcomes. These wider benefits have always been part of government justifications for selective licensing.

Relatively few local authorities have chosen to implement selective licensing schemes. Data on implementation through the country shows the schemes are taken up in urban areas – but most urban areas do not have them. Those that do tend to cluster in London and the North of England, while other regions of the country have few schemes.

Our findings from interviews with implementers, landlords, tenants and third sector stakeholders show a range of views both supportive and critical of selective licensing schemes. Some of the ways arguments are commonly framed requires critique.

For instance, there seems to be a recurring assumption that selective licensing cannot be effective because of difficulties ensuring full compliance and of completing inspections of all the relevant properties. While challenges around compliance and inspections are real, it is important to know that schemes can have impact without being fully completed – something our London study demonstrated.

What are the benefits of selective licensing?

Our findings suggest a number of different ways in which selective licensing could have benefits. One is from home improvements following inspections.

Stakeholders also told us that the promotion and implementation of selective licensing schemes can more generally raise awareness of housing standards and legal obligations – encouraging greater professionalism amongst landlords.

Furthermore, selective licensing is felt by some implementers to be a way of galvanising local authority awareness of problems within this sector and encouraging more joined up services dealing with not just housing but also other issues affecting community disadvantage and poor health.

What are the limitations?

Some stakeholders discussed various limitations to selective licensing. These include geographical and time limits, and limited legal powers to ensure improvements by landlords are conducted consistently and to a high standard.

There are different views about what kind of environmental hazard is serious enough to warrant local authority intervention – this is an area that would benefit from greater consistency and legal clarifications.

Ripple effects and unintended consequences

There are different ways in which selective licensing might impact on tenants and the wider community. This includes pathways to different kinds of benefits but also potential pathways to unintended consequences. The housing system is complex and so we would expect changes in one part of the system to have a range of different ripple effects – including positive and negative experiences.

Professor Matt Egan, who co-leads the study says, “The problems with the private rented sector are well known and put people’s health and wellbeing at risk. It’s good to see attempts to tackle problems in this sector. Because the housing market is so complex, it’s likely that any major housing intervention will have a mixture of impacts. There may be winners and losers.”

One long running concern about housing improvement is that it leads to higher prices, population turnover and gentrification. We are considering that possibility, how we might think about it, and the extent to which our study can capture it.

Associate Professor Jill Stewart, who will also be presenting at the CIEH Housing and Health Conference says, “We need to see if our early findings are replicated outside London. We need to learn more about the impacts on mental health and wellbeing, and on social outcomes like crime and cost of rent – including who is and isn’t benefiting.”

Find out more

If you’re curious to hear about our research, we will be presenting at the CIEH Housing and Health Conference on 22 May. We will discuss the way we designed our ongoing national study, what it does and does not measure, and why we made the choices we made in the design.

Funder

This study is funded by the NIHR Public Health Research programme (NIHR154797). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Research team

• Professor Matt Egan, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Project Lead)
• Dr Jakob Petersen, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Project Lead)
• Ms Safina Miah, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Dr Alexandros Alexiou, University of Liverpool
• Professor Ben Barr, University of Liverpool
• Professor Frank De Vocht, University of Bristol
• Dr Katie Fahy, University of Liverpool
• Dr Debbie Humphry, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Dr Katharina Janke, Lancaster University
• Dr Dalya Marks, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Ms Rose McDonald, Public Involvement
• Dr Tanith Rose, University of Liverpool
• Dr Maureen Seguin, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Ms Roz Spencer, Safer Renting, Cambridge House
• Dr Jill Stewart, University of Greenwich