East Staffordshire Borough Council has announced that it has paused its proposed Selective Licensing Scheme due to the coronavirus outbreak. The announcement follows guidance issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 28th March that selective licensing schemes that are not yet in force should be paused.
A ten week consultation on the proposal was launched on 20th January 2020, in which people who are likely to be affected were encouraged to make representations on the proposal.
The consultation closed on 30th March 2020 and following government advice for selective licensing schemes that are not yet in force to be paused, a decision has been made to pause the proposal at this stage.
A meeting has been requested by Landlords who wish to speak to Leaders of the Council about the proposal, however due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Council is unable to arrange this at the current time.
Councillor Bernard Peters, Deputy Leader for Regulatory Services and Community Support, said: “Having received Government guidance, the Council is now in a position to be able to pause the proposed Selected Licensing Scheme. This will give the Council the opportunity to meet with landlords once social distancing restrictions and have been lifted and the Selective Licensing Process can recommence. The date and location of this will be communicated once confirmed.
“Although the consultation period has ended, it has been confirmed that this meeting will be included with all the other consultation responses and representations made during the consultation period, to form a consultation response document. This will be in the form of a summary of responses received and will demonstrate how these have either been acted on or not, giving reasons, and will be made available to the local community.”