Two-thirds of English councils have not prosecuted any landlords for offences related to the management of private rented housing over the last three years, according to a Freedom of Information request by the National Residential Landlords Association.

The landlord’s body asked for data from 283 local authorities across England about criminal proceedings taken against landlords.

It found that between 2018/2019 and 2020/21, 67% of councils had not successfully prosecuted a landlord for offences related to standards or management of private rented housing.

Just 10% had secured just one successful prosecution.

The association says: “This failure to take action against the criminal minority brings the sector into disrepute and risks undermining further reform of the sector”.

The councils that responded amassed a total of 937 successful prosecutions against landlords over the past three years.

This comes despite the department for local government estimating in 2015, that there may be around 10,500 rogue landlords in the housing market.

The landlord’s body added that just 20 local authorities were responsible for 77% of successful prosecutions.

The three local authorities with the highest number of prosecutions – Southwark, Birmingham and Hull – were responsible for 38% of actions across England. The association notes that Birmingham and Hull had no local landlord licencing scheme in place.

In May’s Queen’s Speech, the government pledged to publish a white paper on reform of the private rented sector next year.

But the NRLA warns that “a failure to enforce the wide range of powers already available to tackle criminal and rogue landlords will critically undermine further reform”.

The NRLA reiterated its call for the government to provide councils with multi-year funding to ensure they have the resources to take action against criminal landlords.

It also calls for councils to publish annual details of formal and informal enforcement activity against private landlords, to ensure they can be held to account in their efforts to tackle criminal and rogue landlords.

The amount spent on housing standards by local authorities in England fell by 45 per cent between 2009 and 2019, according to regulatory campaign group Unchecked UK.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: “The vast majority of responsible landlords are sick and tired of a failure to root out the minority who bring the sector into disrepute.

“The problem is not a lack of powers, but a failure by councils to enforce them properly.

“While ensuring councils have the resources they need is vital, so too is the need for them to be more transparent about the levels of enforcement they are taking.

“In short, local authorities need to prioritise activity to find and root out criminal landlords, ensuring it is they who meet the costs of such efforts.

“Our research illustrates also that there is no clear link between the existence of a landlord licensing scheme and levels of prosecutions.

“Councils again need to be open with tenants and landlords about how such schemes are ensuring standards are met in rental housing.”