Following our successful campaign earlier this year to get action taken in regards to Reading's large private rented housing sector, I have more good news to report - this time for students in particular.
An officer begins work today at Reading Borough Council to review landlord accreditation in Reading.
This is very positive news. I will be meeting her and other officers shortly to discuss how we can revive this important scheme.
A landlord accreditation operated by RBC existed until 2006 when it was suspended by the Labour administration due to lack of resources.
I am sympathetic to officers who work in the HMO team at RBC as their workload increased a lot with the advent of HMO licensing and other measures introduced by the 2004 Housing Act.
We have been campaigning since 2006 alongside Reading University Students' Union for the re-introduction of landlord accreditation to enable students and other tenants to have a straightforward, easy to understand way of finding good quality rented accomodation in Reading.
A revival of RBC's landlord accreditation was one of the recommendations to Cabinet which came out of the scrutiny review I led earlier this year into private rented housing.
Before it is reintroduced, a review needs to take place as since 2006 a lot of new legislation has come in and it will be important that accreditation adds value and does not conflict with existing HMO regulations or add to much burden to landlords.
We are continuing to campaign for a more joined-up approach between RBC and Reading University on a range of issues including - which is sadly not what we've seen in recent days. I will be meeting senior officers from boths organistions soon to see where we can make progress.
Other good news to report is that on Tuesday the Council is set to approve a new draft housing strategy 2009-2014 and I'm pleased to say thanks to our campaign the private rented sector now features prominently in the Council's overall strategy.
For years this sector was overlooked by the Labour-run Council and standards did not keep pace with those in parts of the social housing sector in Reading. This clearly occured for political reasons.
Happily with support from my Lib Dem colleagues we have been able to refocus officers attention on to areas such as HMOs and planning enforcement which have been causing residents problems across Redlands, Katesgrove and central Reading.
The Council's strategy and action plan for reducing empty homes also features in the new housing strategy for the Borough which I'm very pleased about (after so many years when the Council didn't even have one!)
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