to let boards
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Latest property news
Council to clamp-down on ‘illegal’ boards after agents flout code of practice
Harlow council says it has now withdrawn from agreement it set up with local property industry two years ago.
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Camden gains even wider powers to ban ‘eyesore’ estate agency boards
Council can now ban estate agency boards in all conservation areas and town centres until 2030, and has also applied for borough-wide powers too.
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London borough prepares for total estate agency boards ban
Camden Council is polling residents about the ban, which if approved could see all boards removed from its streets.
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Secretary of State green lights another To Let board ban
Letting agents in five mainly students areas of Lincoln will in April onwards not be able to use signboards outside homes.
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Leicester begins banning To Let boards outside student properties
Leicester is the latest city to go live with a scheme that requires letting agents to apply for planning permission to erect boards in areas heavily dominated by students. The council yesterday revealed that it is to start implementing new powers granted to it by the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG) to ban To Let boards in half a dozen areas in and around the University of Leicester and De Montford University. Under the Regulation 7 Direction order landlords or agents must now apply for planning consent to put up signs advertising a property and, if they don’t, will be fined up to £2,500. The areas affected are the Windermere, Hazel, Clarendon Park (pictured, above), Greenhill, West End, Ashleigh Road and West End conservation parts of the city. The ban follows a decade-long attempt to control boards in these areas through a voluntary code of practice but, the council says, only a ‘handful’ of landlords and agents have complied with this. To let boards The council was moved to apply for a Regulation 7 Direction order after locals in these areas complained of an almost constant flurry of boards outside properties. “They are intrusive and often misleading,…
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Another city council applies to Secretary of State to ban To Let boards
To Let boards in five key student-dominated streets near to Lincoln city centre are to be banned after a survey found that a quarter of all properties featured boards. Describing them as “eyesores”, the city’s council says it has recently undertaken several consultations with residents in the affected areas and that 85 of the 134 respondents said they favoured a total ban. The council has now applied to the Secretary of State for the Regulation 7 Direction to be removed for the streets most affected – Monks Road, the West End, Sincil Bank, Union Road and Waterloo Street – and, if granted the powers, the council says it will ban To Let boards outright. “It’s shocking to think that some parts of the city have around 25% of the properties covered in To Let Boards, and between the years 2004 and 2016 we have seen the number of complaints grow steadily, so we are aware that there is a problem,” says City of Lincoln Council Planning Manager Kieron Manning (pictured, left). “Now we have Executive approval, we can carry out the wishes of the majority of residents and apply to have the boards removed.” Local agents aren’t happy about the…
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Nottingham gets green light to restrict To Let boards again after ‘crime reduction’
The City of Nottingham has been given the green light to continue severely restricting the use of To Let boards by agents for a further five years, after it was claimed that a previous control order led to a reduction in crime. Originally introduced by the council in 2012 via a five-year Regulation 7 Direction order, Nottingham has now successfully applied for a second order from Savid Javid’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government The extended scheme will come into operation on 19th February. Boards must follow strict design guidelines and can only be erected from January to September each year. Also, only one board per building is allowed, and agents can only erect one board in a street. Nine roads in a mainly student area of the city will now continue to be policed by the new regime, and any agent wishing to put up such a board outside of its rules will require the permission of the council to do so on a case-by-case basis. The decision follows a site visit by a planning inspector to the area affected by ‘board blight’ who agreed with the council that a further five-year control order was needed. The council…
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Manchester considers city-wide To Let board ban
Manchester is considering a city-wide ban on To Let boards if a voluntary scheme does not work out, its local authority has revealed. City Council chiefs say To Let boards in Manchester are an ‘eyesore’ and accuse many agents of putting up signs ‘all year round’ and making some areas of the city less desirable. Councillors are to prepare plans to introduce a voluntary pilot scheme that will ask letting agents to ‘remove signs’ although the council has not clarified whether this means not using signs at all, or sticking to existing bye-laws about the removal of boards after a property has been let. But either way, if this does not work, the council says it will request a Regulation 7 direction as set out in the Town and Country Planning Regulations, from the Secretary of State to ban To Let boards across Manchester. The pilot scheme will target the mainly students areas of the city including Fallowfield and Withington, as well as areas with the highest proportion of private rented properties. “The high concentration of these signs in some areas of the city creates an unsightly blot on the landscape and can be a real eyesore for local residents,”…
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York signs up agents to student To Let boards ban
City councillors in York say they have persuaded four agents in the city to sign up to a voluntary scheme that will see a To Let boards ban within key student areas around its university. It is claimed that four of York’s leading agents – Adam Bennett, IG Properties, Access Properties York and Sinclair Properties – have agreed to reduce or stop their usage of the boards. “We’ve been told many times over the years that these signs have a big impact on how neighbourhoods look, and there are concerns that they can advertise when student properties are empty,” Labour councillor David Levene (pictured) who used to be a student in the city until 2011 and was elected as a council on a platform of representing students and student issues, told the local paper The Press. “In reality, the vast majority of students find their accommodation online. I’m very pleased and grateful that Sinclairs, AP York, Adam Bennett, and IG have shown real leadership in signing up to this agreement.” The campaign to start a voluntary agreement over To Let boards in York was begun in November last year after complaints by local residents about too many boards in these…
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Sheffield is eighth city to see anti To Let boards campaign
Moves to restrict To Let boards in predominantly student areas of Sheffield are under, adding to existing measures already underway or being considered in seven other cities. These include Brighton, Liverpool, Durham, Belfast, Leicester, Newcastle and London. In Sheffield a local campaigner, retired 57-year-old Tony Flatley, has raised a petition to persuade the city council to ask the Secretary of State for powers to control To Let boards in the city’s mainly student areas including Walkely (pictured), Crookes, Broomhill and Sharrow. “With the number of ‘to let’ boards that are up, it’s the visual impact, but it’s also the fact that actually it’s a burglar’s paradise,” he told local newspaper The Star. “It highlights areas where burglars can go in and steal while the houses are empty.” Flatly says he believes most student and many other tenants now find their properties online and that new restrictions “would not affect agents too much”. “For the people that live in these areas, it has quite a large impact,” he said. “My petition will go in front of Sheffield Council on February 1. The point for me is just to get discussion started.” Meanwhile, in Durham – the latest city to embark on…
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