Communities and Local Government CommitteeSupplementary written evidence submitted by London Borough of Camden
Thank you for the opportunity to give evidence before the Committee on 15 May 2013. I am writing in reply to the Committee’s request for further information on the issues below.
1.
As I said to the Committee, we are immensely proud to host the London Landlords Accreditation Scheme with 11,000 members, 647 of whom have properties in Camden. The scheme provides training for landlords, encourages good practice and avoids costly enforcement activity. The scheme is voluntary and, in the absence of compulsory registration of sector-wide licensing, it is impossible to say with accuracy the percentage of landlords within Camden who have not joined the accreditation scheme. However, with the number of private rented dwellings in Camden now totalling more than 32,000, it is likely that a very large percentage of landlords in the borough are not accredited. We have recently held a successful conference for Landlords at Camden Town Hall and would expect to see an increase in registration rates.
2.
We have data on turnover in schools based on a termly school census, but this evidence is not linked to tenure. We believe, however, change of address amongst primary school children linked to churn in the private rented sector can have a serious impact on childhood development. Research carried out by Shelter published in May 2013 revealed that, nationally, one in 10 renting families have had to change their children’s school in the past five years. In Camden, we plan to get a better understanding of the number children impacted locally as we gather evidence over the next year to inform our future plans for the private rented sector.
I trust that the Committee will find this information useful and that you will not hesitate to contact me for anything further.
June 2013