Councils that have licensing schemes in place for private sector landlords take less action against criminal landlords than those that don't have a scheme in place. That is the finding of a Freedom of Information exercise by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

Compiling data from the almost 300 councils that responded, it finds that local authorities without a licensing scheme conduct more inspections under the Housing, Health and Safety Rating System at a rate of one inspection for every two complaints received, compared with one for every three complaints for councils with licensing schemes in operation.