Two-thirds of English councils have not prosecuted a single landlord in past three years

Two-thirds of councils in England have not prosecuted a single landlord in the past three years, despite receiving 300,000 complaints from desperate tenants living in unfit homes.

From 2022 to 2024, nearly half of local authorities responsible for housing did not fine a landlord, while more than a third did not issue any formal action against people letting out homes unlawfully in the private rental sector.

Councils prosecuted just 640 landlords and issued 4,702 civil penalty notices (CPNs) – meaning fewer than 2% of tenant complaints led to formal enforcement of any kind.

“It’s really concerning,” said Nye Jones, the campaigns manager at Generation Rent. “Councils simply don’t have the resources to enforce, leaving landlords across the country not fulfilling their obligations, and renters living in awful conditions that impact their physical and mental health.”

The 252 councils that responded to the Guardian’s freedom of information request issued private landlords with £26.4m in fines from 2022 to 2024. Legally, this money must be ringfenced to fund improvements in housing enforcement – but the number of landlords punished has barely changed each year.

Of the hundreds of rogue landlords actually prosecuted by councils over the past three years, only 16 have been banned from letting homes – eight of them in London.

Under the Renters’ Rights Act, councils will be legally obliged to enforce new legislation designed to clamp down on rogue landlords from 1 May 2026. But councillors have warned MPs that austerity has gutted housing enforcement teams, meaning new tenant rights will remain largely “symbolic” without sufficient funding.

Tom Darling, the director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “Legislation without enforcement to back it up is just paperwork. The new Renters’ Rights Act should deliver important new protections for private renters – but for tenants to benefit, the government must commit the resources and funding necessary for councils to enforce the act and hold criminal landlords to account.”

Tom Hunt, the leader of Sheffield council and chair of the Local Government Association’s inclusive growth committee, said it was “stark” how little formal enforcement was taking place.

“Across the last 15 years, councils have seen a huge reduction in their budget,” Hunt said. “That has meant that key specialist roles, which are not always fulfilling statutory duties, have been lost – and many staff have moved into the private sector.”

Henry Dawson, a former enforcement officer and now lecturer in housing regulation at Cardiff Metropolitan University, says council funding for enforcement has fallen by an average of about 41%, with staff numbers falling by more than a third between 2010 and 2020. “If they were to take on prosecution or to handle an appeal of a formal legal notice, then that could effectively remove them from their day-to-day work for months.”

Without long-term investment, Dawson said, councils would remain unable to enforce the new legislation: “Unless you provide sustained and predictable funding … what you’re creating is symbolic rights for tenants rather than actual rights.”

Ministers on Friday announced £18m in “burdens funding” to help councils prepare for enforcing the Renters’ Rights Act. Councils and housing experts have welcomed the move but warned the funding falls far short of what will be needed to make the reforms work.

Dawson said the funds would “help, but not transform” councils’ capacity to enforce the new laws. “A lot more funding will be needed to cover the large enforcement burden that the act will impose. The funding must be sustained and predictable and must allow councils to attract and train new staff.”

Hunt said it was “positive” that the government had announced the funding, but warned “the act places significant new regulatory and enforcement responsibilities on councils. For the act’s reforms to be effective, it is vital that councils are fully funded”.

When Maya Jagger moved into a shared house in Ealing in west London in 2021, she did not know her landlord was renting the property illegally without an HMO (house in multiple occupation) licence. Over the next three years, she faced mould and disrepair, landlord harassment and what a tribunal later ruled was an illegal eviction.

Jagger asked Ealing council repeatedly for help but said she was left to handle the case alone. “After the officer came round and surveyed the property … she never followed up. I tried and tried. I tried the main office. I tried [the officer’s] email. I tried calling them. I just heard nothing after that.”

Maya Jagger now lives in Cardiff after her illegal eviction from her flat in Ealing. Photograph: Francesca Jones/The Guardian

Despite providing evidence that the landlord had illegally evicted her, the council never intervened. “You’re sat hoping for someone to pick up the phone and you’re on hold for 40 minutes, an hour, and no one picks up. It hangs up eventually. It just makes you feel really alone.”

An Ealing council spokesperson said: “We are working hard to improve conditions in the private rented sector and making sure private tenants have safe and stable homes.

“We use a graduated enforcement approach, which gives landlords a reasonable opportunity to make repairs, especially if they were unaware of any issues, before taking formal enforcement action such as improvement notices for non-compliance.”

Councils across England often take a similar informal approach, using legal action and fines as a last resort in tackling poor housing standards. But new government guidance published this week makes clear that authorities are “under no expectation to take informal steps”, such as warning letters before acting, signalling a demand for tougher, faster enforcement.

Tenants in England lodge an average of 286 complaints a day about conditions in their homes.

Guardian analysis found that although Birmingham received the third highest number of complaints of any council in England (12,002), it has not prosecuted any landlords since 2022 and raised £99,065 from fines – a formal enforcement rate of 0.38%. In a statement, Birmingham council said: “We have recently reviewed and refined our enforcement policy, particularly around CPNs, and we look forward to further national guidance on this subject.”

By contrast, Leeds council received 2,797 complaints but prosecuted 24 landlords, issued 770 CPNs and banned one rogue landlord, meaning 28% of tenant complaints resulted in formal action.

Councils in Streatham and Croydon North in London, the constituency of the housing secretary, Steve Reed, rank among the worst in the country for enforcement. Croydon council received 4,461 tenant complaints but did not prosecute any landlords and issued three civil penalty notices, collecting £16,000 in fines in 2022.

Lambeth council in south London handled 3,207 complaints and took three enforcement actions – a rate of 0.09%.

Gavin White, the executive member for housing at Manchester city council, said raising funds for enforcement was “a challenge that we need to address”, whether it was through “burdens funding” promised by the government or core council funding. “It’s something we want to do, so there’s a political ambition there. It’s just how we get ourselves ready for that.”

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said the rate at which councils were enforcing was “not good enough”. “Everyone deserves a safe and decent place to live, which is why our landmark Renters’ Rights Act will legally require councils to crack down on rule-breaking landlords.

“Alongside our reforms, we will provide £18m in additional funding so councils can meet their responsibilities and hold landlords to account.”