A new report which claims that landlords earn in the region of £5.6 billion a year from unsafe homes which fail to meet legal standards has been slammed by the National Landlords Association (NLA).

The Citizens Advice study report, A Nation of Renters, says 740,000 households in England now reside in privately rented homes which present a severe threat to tenants’ health from problems like rat infestations and damp.

Gillian Guy, Chief executive of Citizens Advice, said, “Rogue landlords are putting profits before safety.”

The Government is planning to give councils new powers to tackle unscrupulous landlords which own homes with a category 1 hazard, as part of number of proposals to be tabled in a new Immigration Bill. The details of the Bill, which will be a central part of the new Government programme will be announced in the Queen’s speech this week.

“The Government has rightly said it wants to tackle the country’s housing crisis – it must make targeting dodgy landlords, giving tenants better rights and driving up standards a major part of that effort,” Guy added.

But while recognising that bad practice does exist in private housing, “and that it needs to be stamped out”, Richard Lambert (left), Chief Executive Officer at the NLA, criticised the report for using what he described as “loose definitions to compound a perception that private housing is insecure and unsuitable across the board.. He also said that it ignores the weight of evidence to the contrary.

He commented, “The English Housing Survey finds that the average tenancy now lasts just shy of four years, and that only seven per cent of tenancies are ended by landlords. Our own research shows that 86 per cent of families consider their properties as their ‘home’ and that 62 per cent do not see renting as a barrier to family life. Furthermore, just 0.5 per cent of families who rent privately say they’ve had to move because their landlord increased their rent.”

Lambert believes that what this shows is that private housing is far from the CAB’s assertion of a market that is ‘failing systematically to deliver what consumers want’.

He added, “Those who suffer at the hands of the criminal and negligent minority do so because of widespread failure of local councils to commit resources to enforcing the laws that already exist against poor landlords and criminal standards, and because of the failure of successive Governments to incentivise the building of much needed homes that would relieve the pressure on the whole housing market.”

Despite its displeasure with the CAB report, the NLA has welcomed the new Immigration Bill which will, among other things, allow landlords to evict illegal migrants more quickly and roll out the Right to Rent scheme nationwide. But Lambert did express concern at plans to introduce a new mandatory licensing regime for landlords.

He added, “The introduction of a new mandatory licensing regime brings up some concern. We are therefore urgently seeking clarification on whether this would be new policy or related to the current licensing schemes.”

Commenting on the Prime Minster David Cameron’s pledge to licence landlords, David Cox (right), Managing Director at the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), said, “We are pleased to see the Government listened to our Housing Manifesto calls for greater regulation of the private rented sector (PRS). However, whilst this is a step in the right direction, it’s not the full solution to the problem of rogue agents plaguing the market.

“We urge the Government to take this opportunity and impose more appropriate, overarching regulation on the whole lettings industry. We look forward to hearing the full details of the plans in the Queen’s Speech.”