Supply, choice & quality of housing
Policy updated to improve housing standards
A new version of policy designed to enforce standards in private sector housing was approved by Cabinet in February 2021.
The Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy outlines the steps that the Council can take to protect tenants from unsafe homes and tackle rogue property owners. Although the policy was originally introduced in 2018, changes to national legislation have meant that it needs to be updated for the Council to better protect residents.
The new version of the policy will allow the Council to issue civil penalties against property owners who have acted irresponsibly against tenants or who have failed in maintaining legal standards for housing. In addition to this, the updated policy will also enable the Council to undertake enforcement actions on letting agents when needed.
Increase in the number of higher-banded properties as a percentage of all properties
The overall number of properties increased by 1,120 from 146,882 in March 2020 to 148,002 in March 2021. The number of properties in the higher Council tax bands of C to H, increased by 381 from 43,391 in March 2020 to 43,772 in March 2021. As a result, there has been a slight increase in the percentage of higher banded properties relative to the overall tax base, now at 29.58%.
Reduction in council tax collected
Despite the economic impact associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, the city has experienced only a small reduction in the percentage of council tax collected in-year in 2020/21. In 2019/20 95.5% of council tax was collected in-year; this reduced to 94.4% in 2020-21.
The tax base remains buoyant with increases in the number of properties and the amount of council tax available to collect. The base increased from £157.7 million in March 2020 to £162.4 million in March 2021.
