Accreditation provides an exciting opportunity to promote an expanded and better quality private rented sector (PRS) and needs to be embraced by all PRS stakeholders.

In recent years the housing market has, and is continuing, to go through significant changes and accreditation will help the PRS to take advantage of the opportunities that are opening up.

By way of background, accreditation started a decade ago in the student sector. The regulation of standards in the student market faced challenges because of the difficulty in applying the definition of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) to shared housing. Accreditation emerged as a means of voluntary self regulation with accredited landlords achieving business advantage through the accreditation status.

Higher educational institutions or their nominated agencies such as UNIPOL and Manchester Student Homes operated many of the original student schemes. Their early successes encouraged local authorities to develop and launch schemes to cover the entire PRS within their administrative borders.

Those first local authority schemes faced an uphill struggle because they had to go through learning curves and break down the barriers of mistrust between local authorities and private landlords that had built up over many years. Landlords were suspicious of the motives of local authorities that they perceived as having anti PRS cultures at both political and officer level and had traditionally enforced standards but now wished to encourage and acknowledge good standards and work with, not against private landlords.

Some of the early pioneering schemes failed through a variety of reasons but many flourished. The successes encouraged more local authorities to set up schemes. Local Government officers and private landlords alike, weary with the old antagonistic attitudes that traditional enforcement of standards created, were all too willing to try news ways of working.

By the late 1990s expansion of accreditation had come to the attention of the Government which commissioned Professor Philip Leather of the Centre for Urban Renewal Studies, Birmingham University, to undertake research into the increasing popularity of accreditation. The outcome was that the Government liked what was reported and accordingly threw its own weight behind supporting accreditation by publishing extensive guidance to local authorities on how to develop and successfully operate accreditation schemes.

This strong message to local authorities that Government actively supported accreditation turned the stream of interest in accreditation into a torrent. The operators of successful accreditation schemes became inundated with enquiries about the practicalities of setting up and operating schemes from organisations interested in doing so. This encouraged Leeds City Council and UNIPOL Student Homes to run the first National Accreditation Fair in 2001. Two hundred and fifty delegates from around the UK attended the event and the feedback indicated that there was enormous interest in establishing accreditation as a mainstream feature of the PRS.

This inspired key national PRS players, including the Government and the Residential Landlords Association, to create ANUK to publicise, promote and share good practice in accreditation. This multi-agency organisation is one of the key drivers for accreditation. It is run by a management group that includes landlord representatives such as those from the National Federation of Residential Landlords and the British Property Federation.

Accreditation is now sweeping the country and new schemes are continuously being launched or developed. By way of examples, in July 2004, thirty-two London Boroughs launched the London wide London landlords accreditation scheme while last month, with Government support, ANUK launched the first National Code of Standards for Larger Student developments.

Estimates are that half the local authorities in England already operate or are developing accreditation schemes. Accreditation scheme practitioners estimate that within three years it will be unusual for any part of the UK containing any sizeable PRS to not have an accreditation scheme. The acorn is growing.

The times they are a changing and it is worthwhile considering some of the contexts in which accreditation is flourishing. Council housing, seen years ago as a ‘must have’ by many people, can now be a last rather than a first choice of housing. There has been an under investment in council stock with the result that once popular estates are now run down and are an unattractive choice for renting.

People are choosing to enter into owner occupation at a later stage in life and are renting privately in the interim. The private rented sector is thus becoming a more attractive choice for accommodation.

The Government’s national strategic housing policy states that it wishes to see an expanded and better quality PRS. The PRS is working hard to improve its professionalism and its image.

In addition to changes in the housing markets, individuals’ and organisational attitudes are also changing. Modern methods of getting things done effectively and efficiently are based on partnership working. Accreditation provides a mechanism for partnership working, but to be effective it is necessary for historical prejudices and barriers to be broken down.

A landlord’s perspective of a local authority has commonly been that of an organisation having an anti private landlord culture. Conversely a local authority perspective of the PRS has often been that of an unprofessional service sector where conditions are poor.

Outdated negative perceptions and attitudes need to change in order to create effective partnerships. Accreditation schemes provide the mechanisms for local authorities and landlords to engage in constructive dialogue to understand respective positions and build those partnerships.

Government is encouraging local authorities to separate their landlord functions from their strategic housing functions. Many local authorities have created ‘arms length management organisations’ (ALMOs) to achieve this, whilst many more have transferred their housing stock to registered social landlords.

This move towards local authorities being the facilitators of housing services rather direct providers is bringing about a change in attitude towards the PRS. The PRS is no longer seen as a ‘problem’ but instead the PRS is seen for what it is, the provider of essential accommodation services.

The emphasis now is on local authorities working with the PRS to help private landlords to provide the type and quality of letting services that are needed within local authorities’ municipal areas.

A first step towards better partnership working is facing up to realities. The links between poor housing and poor health are well known. Consequently the rented housing market is a regulated area and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

The way that conditions in the PRS are regulated however, is the key area where change is needed and that accreditation will bring about.

Improvement and maintenance of standards through enforcement can be inefficient and can result in poor relationships between the local authority and the landlord. However there are some irresponsible landlords operating who need to be forced to improve or get out of the market and tough enforcement powers are needed to achieve this.

However for the vast majority of landlords voluntary compliance with reasonable standards through the accreditation process is the appropriate way to achieve good quality accommodation. The accreditation process acknowledges and encourages landlords and provides the information and education mechanisms to assist them.

Local authority officers are well aware that the vast majority of private landlords are responsible, well intentioned and provide good services and are consequently embracing accreditation as a new way of working with them. They also see landlord education/training as a key to professionalising the PRS.

The model that is emerging around the country as the most appropriate for the regulation of standards in the PRS is the complementary use of accreditation to support the vast majority of good landlords and the targeted tactical use of enforcement against that minority of landlords who do not have the will or the competence to provide decent accommodation services and who tarnish the image of the rest.

This model includes enforcement powers being used in accordance with the Government’s Enforcement concordat that provides a framework for good practice including transparency of enforcement policies and enforcement action being proportionate to risk. The emphasis of the model is on supporting landlords through the accreditation process and using enforcement as a last rather than first measure.

This model has Government support.

Indeed at the time of writing, the Government’s paper on the implementation of HMO licensing is out for consultation. The paper contains recommendations for accredited landlords to be given favourable treatment in their applications for HMO licences.

Accreditation through partnerships with local authorities is the way forward for improving and maintaining good standards within the PRS, improving its image and reputation and increasing its prosperity.

The challenges of the new Housing Act makes it even more imperative that local authorities and private landlords work together to make the implementations of the Act as painless as possible.

Accreditation is by its nature, voluntary and therefore needs to be made to work. Local authorities are taking the initiative to develop and operate accreditation schemes and landlords need to support them in order to make them work. In that way we can all look forward to a brighter and more prosperous future for the PRS and turn our backs on the old antagonistic ways of working.

If you feel inspired to chat about any of the points raised above please call Neil Marsden on 0113 247 6242 - or alternatively email him at n.marsden@fsmail.net. The ANUK website can be found at www.anuk.org.uk.