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The Death of the Licences for Letting Agents

The new government has decided not to go ahead with a licensing scheme for letting agents.  The housing minister said that it would just create an extra unnecessary level of red tape.  The media has given this decision a mixed respomse.  Below is the BBC website's report on the decision.

The government is under fire after scrapping plans for tougher regulation of the letting industry.

A landlords register and new regulation of letting agents were to be introduced by the previous Labour administration.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) said cutting the plans would aid rogue landlords. Citizen's Advice also criticised the decision.

But Housing Minister Grant Shapps said the sector was already governed by a well-established framework.

He added that the government wanted to focus instead on increasing home ownership.

"With the vast majority of England's three million private tenants happy with the service they receive, I am satisfied that the current system strikes the right balance between the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords," Mr Shapps told Parliament.

My opinion for what it's worth is that this was a scheme that was unworkable.  Of course there are agents who are rogues and landlords who have substandard properties, but would a licensing scheme.  The bad agents and landlords would ignore the scheme and there would be nothing the government could do to stop it.  So a victory for common sense or a cop out.  Tell me what you think