‘14 people in a two-up two-down’ – criticism of Rotherham's Selective Licensing houses

The scheme – introduced in 2015 – requires private landlords in problem areas to pay £592 per property for five years and be subjected to inspections.

But Rotherham Council has fallen well behind on these checks, and a scrutiny review has been criticised for not addressing fundamental problems.

Cllr Ian Jones, Rotherham West ward, said: “I expected to be able to see some tangible evidence of these schemes raising standards.

“There seems to be a race to get landlords listed on the register but very, very few inspections are undertaken on time. The team are very inadequate, as far as resources.

“We are getting properties being rented out to families at £1,600 a month, with 14 people in a two-up two-down property that’s got mould in it, class one dangers, bare wiring, etc.

“None of this is going to be addressed by anything that was in the review.”

Cllr Adam Tinsley, Maltby East ward, said: “We don’t have an up to date figure of how many inspections have been carried out.

“Usually, these houses would be inspected twice in a five-year period. The last figure we had was that 1,300 houses had not been inspected.

“I’ve been in properties where there’s no ceilings, there’s water coming through lights, and we think this report addresses that?

“These recommendations don’t look to get back on top of these report numbers. It’s disgraceful. We are not addressing the issues and residents are suffering.”

The policy covers areas in Parkgate, Thurcroft, Maltby, Dinnington, Eastwood, Masbrough and Rotherham town centre.

Concerns from the Improving Places select commission about living conditions and absentee landlords led to the scrutiny review. The main recommendation was to concentrate re-inspections on landlords who have previo usly fallen short.

At last week’s (27) full council meeting, Cllr Adam Carter suggested the policy was simply an extra tax in deprived areas, with the fees being passed on to renters.

Cllr Simon Ball described a Dinnington street with damp being prevalent, missing doors and windows, fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

He added: “It’s clear that the council is struggling with the amount of work it has undertaken.”

Cllr Ken Wyatt, who chairs Improving Places, responded: “I don’t think anybody would think that this review is going to be the answer to all the issues that exist in the private rented sector.

“This was about trying to concentrate the limited resources that are available to deal with the worst of the issues.”

And RMBC deputy leader Cllr Sarah Allen said: “This is a subject that doesn’t conclude. It’s a work in progress and will continue.

We will be focusing re-inspections on landlords who have previously failed, so the endeavour is to keep the pressure on them to improve.

It’s my personal priority within the selective licensing service to get the number of inspections up. I’m assured that the service is doing all it can to do that.”