District council defeats High Court challenge to selective licensing scheme

A district council has successfully fought off a High Court challenge brought by landlords over its introduction of a selective licensing scheme in two of its wards.

The plan to bring in such a scheme for Margate Central and Cliftonville West was agreed by Thanet District Council’s Cabinet in January 2011.

The authority said the purpose of the five-year scheme was to tackle anti-social behaviour and low housing demand, as well as secure improvement to the management of privately rented properties.

The Southern Landlords Association brought judicial review proceedings, arguing that there was:

• a lack of evidence to conclude that the areas were or were likely to become an area of low housing demand;
• a lack of evidence or basis for determining that there was an anti-social behaviour problem in the wards which some private sector landlords had failed to combat;
• a failure properly or at all to consider other courses of action to achieve the objectives selective licensing was intended to achieve.

However, in Southern Landlords Association, R (on the application of) v Thanet District Council [2012] EWHC 3187 Mr Justice Cranston has ruled in the council’s favour.

The judge said it was impossible for the claimant to sustain the contention that there was a public law error in the council’s decision-making.

He said: “The problems of anti-social behaviour in the Margate Central and Cliftonville West wards and its causes did not suddenly emerge in 2010…. it has a context stretching back over several decades.

“Members of the Cabinet would have been aware of the issues through local knowledge and being informed by the raft of reports about the area over the previous decade. In the light of all that they made a judgment about the benefits of selective licensing.”

Mr Justice Cranston set out the statutory delineation of low housing demand and said it again seemed impossible to him sustain a public law challenge to the council’s decision-making in this regard.

The judge meanwhile said the third ground of challenge went “nowhere”.

“It is clear from what I have said earlier in the judgment that during the past decade the council has taken a wide range of initiatives to address the problems in the Margate Central and Cliftonville West wards,” he said.

“Those were reviewed in the proposal document. It is also clear that, despite those efforts and the public money spent in the area, its regeneration had not been achieved. I cannot see any basis for contending that the requirement to consider other courses of action was not met.”

Mr Justice Cranston concluded that the claimant “failed to establish any error of law in the council’s assessment and designation of its Margate Central and Cliftonville West wards as a selective licensing area”.

Thanet, the first local authority in Kent to put in place a selective licensing scheme, described the ruling as “a significant victory”.

Cllr David Green, its Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said: “The High Court decision is wonderful news for the people of Thanet, and I’m delighted with the ruling.

“The council is dedicated to the regeneration of Margate Central and Cliftonville West, and the selective licensing scheme represents a powerful legislative tool to help us do this. Throughout the process of High Court judgment, we’ve always been on the side of local people, and I’m very pleased that our stance has been vindicated.”

The Southern Landlords Association said it was "most concerned" by the judgment.  

Peter Littlewood, spokesman for the association, said: "The decision to take Thanet District Council to court had not been brought lightly. The SLA still considers that the council has not acted in the interests of the majority of law abiding landlords or the residents of the Margate and Cliftonville area.

"In challenging the decision to introduce selective licensing the SLA acted in the best interests of its members in the area who are affected by it."

Philip Hoult