• Skip to content
  • Skip to navigation
Logo: Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Your Account
  • Menu
Close menu
Close
  • About the Council
  • Business and Economy
  • Children and Families
  • Community and Living
  • Council Tax and Benefits
  • Education and Learning
  • Environment and Waste
  • Health and Social Care
  • Housing
  • Jobs and Careers
  • Leisure and Culture
  • Planning and Development
  • Transport and Streets
  • See all news
  • See all events
  1. Home
  2. About the council
  3. Consultation and feedback
  4. Selective Licensing Consultation in Rotherham 2025 to 2030

Selective Licensing Consultation in Rotherham 2025 to 2030

In this section

  1. Your consultation
  2. What is Selective licensing?
  3. Does Selective Licensing work?
  4. Proposed areas
  5. What the Council wants to achieve
  6. How can the council support local landlords and tenants
  7. You are here: Alternative to Selective Licensing
  8. Proposed Licence Fees
  9. How can I become involved with the consultation?
  10. Exemptions from Selective Licencing
  11. Frequently Asked Questions

Alternative to Selective Licensing

The Council has worked for many years with the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), and local landlord forums. There is a regular Landlord Newsletter which is published and circulated, advising on a wide range of relevant issues. There have been regular, widely published meetings in Rotherham led by the NRLA, where landlords could meet and discuss issues.

The attendance at meetings is constant, supported by a core of 20 to 35 local landlords who are trying their best to deliver quality services and effective businesses. Unfortunately, other initiatives to engage with landlords in the borough have been unsuccessful. The council has offered discounted training to landlords via the NRLA and free memberships, but the take up was in single figures. The Landlords Newsletter is periodically sent by email to all licence holders in Selective Licensing areas and other landlords who have agreed to join the council’s distribution. The newsletter provides a range of topical articles and offers the opportunity for feedback, but little has been received.  

A significant issue which is a barrier to delivering alternative or voluntary, large scale housing projects in the private sector is the composition of landlords operating in Rotherham. In the current selective licensing scheme 71% of licence holders have only one property, whilst only 6% have 5 or more properties. The predominance of small landlords makes communication and effective training challenging. It is also likely that the vast majority of Rotherham landlords do not let property as their primary employment, which may contribute to the poor management identified. 

Where it has been possible to offer an alternative to selective licensing this has been agreed. In 2020 a proposal was put forward to declare the Little London area of Maltby for Selective Licensing. The majority landlords and their agents put forward an alternative scheme which the Council considered viable, this was accepted and has been operational since. The model for this alternative management approach is however very specific to that particular area and would not be scalable to the wider area of Rotherham.     

The reactive model of housing enforcement and intervention, though effective for those who are confident enough to complain, is not effective to safeguard tenants from dishonest landlords nor to deliver area wide improvement.  

There is currently no realistic alternative to Selective Licencing in the wider borough to deliver sustained and effective improvements in the private rented sector.

  • Previous page: How can the council support local landlords and tenants
  • Next page: Proposed Licence Fees

Stay connected

Sign up for our newsletter
Footer Logo: Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
  • About this website
  • Accessibility statement
  • Privacy
  • Languages
  • Contact Us
  • Location
  • Terms and conditions
  • Facebook logo
  • Twitter logo
  • YouTube logo
  • Instagram logo
  • LinkedIn logo

All content © 2025 Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. All Rights Reserved.

Designed and Powered by Jadu.

chatbot launch button image
Left Right
Full Wide Split Narrow
Chatbot avatar image
Hi, I'm Bailey
I'm here to answer your questions.

Hi, I'm Bailey, how can I help you today? You can ask me questions relating to a number of council services.

To start a chat you will need to click 'continue' to confirm you have read and understood our terms and conditions Privacy Policy.

Privacy Statement