"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field" ~ Niels Bohr

It appears that the comedy mayor’s consultation on the introduction of selective licensing for private sector landlords may need a little tweaking. Solicitors Anthony Gold have an interesting analysis on their web site.

The firm of lawyers is of the opinion that Newham Council hasn’t followed the government guidance on what is required of such a consultation. Among the charges set out is that Newham Council’s consultation has “Loaded questions with no explanation of the meaning”; now, there’s a surprise.

The analysis is also critical of Newham’s plan for operating the scheme: “Newham state that they intend to charge one fee for landlords who licence early and a “penalty” fee of nearly ten times that sum for those landlords who have been prosecuted for failure to have a licence. It seems inappropriate for Newham to levy these penalties when there is already a perfectly proper system of prosecuting landlords who fail to get licences with fines levied by the magistrates court. This allows the landlord to defend the matter and to produce a plea of mitigation. The Housing Act 2004 also requires that Newham can only levy charges that reflect the costs of running the scheme. Newham will no doubt say that they are only charging what it costs them but are loading the cost onto those who cause then the most problems. However, they will need to show that the balance is fair and is a genuine reflection of the different costs of licensing landlords who have and have not been prosecuted. This might be hard for them to do”. Oh dear.

Another day at the office for the comedy mayor of Westfield. Remember, this is the mayor that promises transparency, efficiency and an end to waste.