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<p>The Government does not support a mandatory register of private landlords. The
majority of landlords provide decent and well managed accommodation and requiring
those landlords to sign up to a national register would introduce an unnecessary and
costly additional layer of bureaucracy.</p><p>Mandatory licensing is already in place
for higher risk rental properties, larger houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). We
consulted extensively on changes to the scope of mandatory licensing. There was broad
support for extending this to include all HMOs with five or more occupiers. We published
our response to our HMO reforms consultation in December 2017, and laid The Licensing
of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 in
February. Where there are problems with smaller HMOs in a particular area, local housing
authorities have the discretionary power to introduce additional HMO licensing.</p><p>Local
housing authorities are also able to introduce selective licensing of landlords in
targeted areas to tackle specific problems, as long as the statutory requirements
are met. We have committed to a review of selective licensing and will announce further
details on the review after Easter recess.</p>
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