Aim 1: Reasons for agreement or disagreement

• Of respondents who ‘slightly’ or ‘strongly agree’ that licensing will help to protect private rented tenants of HMOs from poorly managed and maintained properties, 15% feel it provides a framework for standards and enables them to be monitored, and 14% feel licensing will ensure landlords are held accountable to maintain standards
• Of respondents who ‘neither agree nor disagree’, the highest proportion feel they lack information to make a decision (15%)
• Over a fifth of respondents who ‘slightly’ or ‘strongly disagree’ that licensing will help to protect private rented tenants of HMOs from poorly managed and maintained properties feel the additional cost will increase prices for tenants or reduce the availability of HMOs (21%), and just under a fifth (18%) feel the licensing will negatively impact good HMO landlords

This table shows the most common themes around why respondents ‘slightly’ or ‘strongly agree’ that licensing will help to meet Aim 1: ‘To protect private rented tenants of HMOs from poorly managed and maintained properties’:
15% of respondents feel it provides a framework for standards and enables them to be monitored
14% of respondents feel licensing will ensure landlords are held accountable to maintain standards
9% of respondents feel many HMOs are currently in poor condition with no external standardising or regulation
9% of respondents feel general agreement with objective of the aim
8% of respondents feel licensing will provide tenants with external protection
5% of respondents agree only if it is enforced properly
3% of respondents feel it makes HMOs identifiable and provides point of contact
11% of respondents give other comments
39% of respondents give no comment

This table shows the most common themes around why respondents ‘neither agree nor disagree’ that licensing will help to meet Aim 1: ‘to protect private rented tenants of HMOs from poorly managed and maintained properties’:
15% of respondents feel there is a lack of information to make the decision
8% of respondents disagree with HMOs/ the amount of them in the city
7% of respondents feel properties can be well-managed without licensing
7% of respondents feel unsure if licensing would solve the issues
6% of respondents feel standards should be regulated, but the cost is likely to impact tenants
6% of respondents feel the impact on licensing will depend on how well it is enforced
6% of respondents feel unsure if landlords will meet the standards
8% of respondents give other comments
41% of respondents give no comment

This table shows the most common themes around why respondents ‘slightly’ or ‘strongly disagree’ that licensing will help to meet Aim 1: ‘To protect private rented tenants of HMOs from poorly managed and maintained properties’:
21% of respondents feel the additional cost will increase prices for tenants or reduce the availability of HMOs
18% of respondents feel the majority of HMO landlords are good, licensing will negatively impact them
14% of respondents feel there is no evidence of previous schemes/ current licensing making a difference
10% of respondents feel licensing will not be enforced well enough to make a difference
10% of respondents feel the scheme will not tackle the real problem of rogue landlords
9% of respondents feel there is already sufficient legislation in place for tenants
8% of respondents feel licensing will create/ ignore certain issues
8% of respondents disagree with HMOs/ have general issues with HMOs
12% of respondents give other comments
12% of respondents give no comment