The council is under a statutory duty to consider issuing civil penalties in relation to housing-related breaches and offences. New statutory guidance published following the enactment of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 amends the current suggested approach to imposing the civil penalties and provides guidance on the newly introduced breaches and offences. The council’s previous civil penalty policy (annex 1 of the Private Sector Housing enforcement policy 2021) became redundant on 1st May 2026 and this policy has replaced with the new civil penalty policy.
In alignment with most local housing authorities in England, and to promote consistency, the council has adopted the model civil penalty policy published by the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers (ACEHO). The policy will be updated from time to time to reflect further provisions from the Renters’ Right Act 2025 coming into force. Version 2 of the policy is the first version to be published (with a revision table to explain the changes from version 1, which was approved at Cabinet in June 2026). The revisions occurred due to the coming into force of the breaches for category 1 hazards attracting an immediate civil penalty where ethe landlord could have reasonably addressed the hazard prior to it being identified by the council on 22nd June 2026.