This proposal is to have 'special licences' for private landlords in certain wards in Ealing which have been identified as having more anti-social behaviour. This includes problems with rubbish disposal, but before we start blaming tenants we need to be sure that Ealing is actually collecting and cleaning as it should be, and there's much evidence on this forum to suggest that it isn't. There are many arguments for licensing all private landlords to make sure they are suitable people, and inspecting all their properties to make sure they're up to standard, but this would require far more staff than Ealing could ever make available for the task, so it isn't what they're proposing to do. The plan is to charge all landlords in the designated areas £500 and use the money to deal with the problem cases. This scheme won't change the behaviour of rogue landlords, who are unlikely to cooperate with it when they're already prepared to flout many of the regulations that already apply, but which presently go unenforced. So in the end it'll be the law-abiding landlords who'll pay for this scheme but get little benefit from it. As I've said elsewhere, throwing stuff away is fast becoming too complicated for people, with different bins for different things, collected on different days, and with different rules in different London boroughs. And the problems we're witnessing in Ealing suggest that it's too complicated as well for the contractors who are supposed to collect the stuff.
Peter Evans ● 3694d