New data has revealed a shocking enforcement gap in England's private rental sector, with fewer than 2% of tenant complaints about poor housing conditions leading to any formal action against landlords.
Systemic Failure in Housing Enforcement
An exclusive analysis of council data shows that two-thirds of English local authorities have not prosecuted a single landlord in the past three years, despite receiving approximately 300,000 complaints from tenants living in unsuitable properties.
Between 2022 and 2024, nearly half of housing authorities did not issue a single fine to landlords, while more than a third took no formal action against property owners letting out homes unlawfully. During this period, councils prosecuted just 640 landlords and issued 4,702 civil penalty notices.
Nye Jones, campaigns manager at Generation Rent, expressed serious concern about the findings. "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," he said.
Funding Cuts Cripple Enforcement Capacity
The 252 councils that responded to Freedom of Information requests issued private landlords with £26.4 million in fines over the three-year period. By law, this money must be ringfenced for housing enforcement improvements, yet the number of landlords facing punishment has remained stagnant year after year.
Of the hundreds of rogue landlords prosecuted since 2022, only 16 have been banned from letting properties - with half of these bans occurring in London.
Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield Council and chair of the Local Government Association's inclusive growth committee, described the low level of formal enforcement as "stark." He explained that "across the last 15 years, councils have seen a huge reduction in their budget. 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."
According to Henry Dawson, a former enforcement officer and current lecturer in housing regulation at Cardiff Metropolitan University, council funding for enforcement has fallen by approximately 41% on average, with staff numbers dropping by more than a third between 2010 and 2020.
New Legislation Faces Enforcement Challenge
The Renters' Rights Act, scheduled to take effect from 1 May 2026, will legally require councils to enforce new legislation designed to clamp down on rogue landlords. However, councillors have warned MPs that austerity measures have severely depleted housing enforcement teams, potentially rendering new tenant rights "symbolic" without adequate funding.
Tom Darling, director of the Renters' Reform Coalition, emphasised that "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."
On Friday, ministers announced £18 million in "burdens funding" to help councils prepare for enforcing the new legislation. While welcomed by councils and housing experts, many have warned this amount falls significantly short of what will be needed to make the reforms effective.
Dawson noted that 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," he added.
Case Study: Tenant Left to Fight Alone
The human impact of this enforcement failure is illustrated by the experience of Maya Jagger, who moved into a shared house in Ealing, west London in 2021 without knowing her landlord was renting the property illegally without a required HMO licence.
Over three years, she faced mould, property disrepair, landlord harassment, and what a tribunal later ruled was an illegal eviction. Despite repeatedly asking Ealing Council for help and providing evidence of the illegal eviction, she received no intervention.
"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 just makes you feel really alone," she recounted.
An Ealing Council spokesperson said they were "working hard to improve conditions in the private rented sector" and used a "graduated enforcement approach" that gives landlords reasonable opportunity to make repairs before taking formal action.
Regional Disparities in Enforcement
The analysis revealed significant variations in enforcement approaches across different local authorities.
Birmingham Council received the third-highest number of complaints in England (12,002) but has not prosecuted any landlords since 2022 and raised only £99,065 from fines - representing a formal enforcement rate of just 0.38%.
In contrast, Leeds Council received 2,797 complaints but prosecuted 24 landlords, issued 770 civil penalty notices, and banned one rogue landlord - meaning 28% of tenant complaints resulted in formal action.
Some of the worst enforcement records were found in constituencies of government ministers, including Streatham and Croydon North - the constituency of Housing Secretary Steve Reed. Croydon Council received 4,461 tenant complaints but prosecuted no landlords and issued only three civil penalty notices, collecting just £16,000 in fines in 2022.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson acknowledged that the enforcement rate was "not good enough" and stated that "everyone deserves a safe and decent place to live." They emphasised that the Renters' Rights Act would legally require councils to crack down on rule-breaking landlords, supported by £18 million in additional funding.
However, with tenants in England lodging an average of 286 complaints daily about housing conditions, the question remains whether symbolic rights will translate into real protection without substantial, sustained investment in enforcement capacity.
