New meetings over Liverpool licensing saga

Two meetings to be held next week may decide whether Liverpool becomes the latest council to introduce selective licensing for private landlords.

The events take place at St George's Hall in the Reid Room, Liverpool civic centre, on Monday June 2 starting at 1.30pm, and on Wednesday June 4 at 1.30pm. As with so many other attempts to introduce licensing in recent months, Liverpool's proposal has been met with widespread opposition from individual landlords and bodies such as the Residential Landlords Association.

Although most councils have gone on to introduce licensing irrespective of the views of landlords, some authorities have back-tracked.

Boston council in Lincolnshire, for example, this month agreed not to pursue its idea for a licensing scheme after suggesting that links between landlords, letting agents and other bodies were informally working at improving housing standards and driving away criminal groups who had become involved in the private rental sector in the area.

The National Landlords' Association has praised Boston's decision and consultation process. It very clearly set out exactly what the situation and options were, it encouraged people to get hold of the [consultation] document, made it available and then listened to what people were saying" says an NLA spokesman.

Will Liverpool take a similar view