Enforcement not legislation – PRS Hit Squads

I have been away and only just catching up with the posts but a 'hit squad' seems infinitely better and cheaper/more effective than the silly licenscing scheemes which will just make the greedy local councils money....

Hi Tricia,
There are two strands in all council projects. Enforcement officers like me are solely concerned with getting the job done. The job that we volunteered for and do because it fits our notion of life and what we want to do with it and elected councillors/senior managers, for whom its a far more political game.

It will be the same for all public servants from cops to nurses and all points in between.

The Newham scheme is treated with more than a fair bit of scorn and humour when us enforcement types sit around a pub table because we intrinsically know that it is politically driven and so often political motives can get in the way of us lot doing our jobs.

A friend in another borough recently suggested using a section 222 injunction to control an offender (S222 injunctions are ones taken out by a council in the public interest) but he was overruled by a senior manager who sucked in a breath and said "Oh I dont think we should be going down the road of doing these things in the public interest" haha. Then what are we here for? We laughed tears over that one.

You learn to work within these confines after a while.

On a point of correction for ya'll though it should be noted that the rules on selective and additional licensing say that a council cant use the money for income generation, it can only be put back into the scheme itself. Parking fines, speed cameras? Yeah for sure but actually fees from licensing dont swell a council's coffers, except insofar as it is plowed back into the scheme itself.

Which begs the obvious question, surely if this is the case then the more the scheme makes (for Newham somewhere between £4.5 million and £15 million to date) then all they can do is grow the team and there must come a point when the amount of officers employed outnumbers the amount of unlicensed premises. So the officers get laid off until a point where the criminal landlords simply move back in and the whole process starts again.

Just a thought

Sorry Ben, it wasn't meant to be a criticism of you guys and gals, just as you explained, it would help increase the staffing levels for all the 'power mad' bosses in the councils....

Reply to the comment left by "Tricia Collick" at "05/10/2013 - 14:26":

No offence taken at all Tricia.

I dont think our bosses are power mad at all, there are different stratas.
-Frontline people like me just sign up to do a specific job.
-team leaders are like foremen, they are ex frontliners trying to move up a grade and get away from dealing with the public.
-middle managers are ex team leader either looking for a higher career or just to earn a bit more money.
-Unit managers are the same people but many have cottoned on to the idea that they just might have a higher career.
-SGM's are the higher ups who are so far removed from the front line that they dont know what's going on anymore and their role is solely about stats and performance targets. They dont care of the frontliners are struggling, their concerns is with keeper their superiors happy and making sure their superiors look good to THEIR superiors.
-Directors of service operate in the political stratosphere and some have an eye on the idea that one day they may blag their way into mainstream politics.
-Mayors? Well there you go. Newham's Sir Robin Wales, perhaps the next MP of Newham or even Lord Wales of whatever.

The concerns of the frontliner are of more immediate concern to us and the further our concerns go up the line the more irrelevant they become.

For the people in the top strata it is all about votes and statistics and this passes down the line to us and at some point we frontliners simply wonder what world the other lot are living in, because we sit in the interview rooms with the domestic violence victim, whereas for the top strata she is simply a statistic.

HOWEVER> It is that top strata and the managers directly underneath them who understand about the economics of it all and funding streams. We couldnt do it without them.

Its an uneasy alliance of needs.

National-Lettings is pleased to support this initiative.
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Reply to the comment left by "Adam Alexander" at "11/10/2013 - 10:31":

Thanks very much for the support Adam. Makes me think it might help if I get on the phone and get some more notable backing for the scheme

Reply to the comment left by "Ben Reeve-Lewis" at "05/10/2013 - 15:02":

Ben, The age-old expression "too many Chiefs and not enough Indians" is shouting from the rooftops .....

The real problem is few staff in local authorities want to get their hands dirty and tackle any of the unpleasant work. They seem to see themselves just as comfy, office based revenue collectors & want to climb the greasy pole to get away from what they are really employed to do - PROVIDE SERVICES FOR OUR COMMUNITIES. Basically, they are afraid to deal with the people they are employed to deal with. Any burned out tele-sales person knows that feeling and like burned out tele-sales people, they should move on or be sacked - not promoted.

That's why yet more bonkers and costly revenue raising schemes are dreamed up instead of enforcing existing regulations. Clearly, those above you, instead of coming out with you and giving you a hand have far, far, far, far too much time to spare holding meeting after meeting to discuss yet more ways to raise revenue without tackling the real problems that being on the ground would do.

That's why everything a local authority seems to do is so ridiculously costly and inefficient and why so much is now outsourced.

Hi Ben

How are you getting on with this, anything interesting to report yet?
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Oh well yeah.

Having to build something entirely from scratch is a bit of a mammoth task involving lots of boring stuff. Lots of meetings connecting people and developing systems for sharing information and intelligence gathering.

What has surprised me is meetings that I have had across London borough boundaries, digging out the criminal landlords who arent just in my area but work across the board and talking to the various enforcement officers dealing with the same people I deal with but who I didnt previously know existed.

I filmed a documentary for the BBC on Friday about criminal landlords hot wiring properties and using stolen electricity and gas meters to ramp up their profits. Again not redolent of 99% of landlords but a significant underclass, capable of affecting 300 - 400 tenants at a time and a dodgy letting agent taking rent from 400 tenants but not passing it over to their landlord clients, leaving them in danger of repossession by their mortgage companies. More on this later.

A nice touch this week though with a landlord operating a property designed for 10 people but containing 27 housing benefit claimants packed in there, including a 16 year old girl with a 55 year old man. Fined for no HMO license and a Rent Repayment Order granted against him by the Rent Property Tribunal of £53,000 on Friday, so things are moving against out criminals apace.

As you know Mark i dont use the term 'Rogue landlord'. Even 'Criminal landlord' doesnt fit the bill. The people on my list are simply criminals....who happen to use landlording as a front.

Going out with the Police at 7am tomorrow to raid a disused pub with UKBA where an illegal gangmaster has 27 Columbian immigrants using a sole chemical toilet and working for him on an illegal cleaning racket.

Another day another dollar haha

Reply to the comment left by "Ben Reeve-Lewis" at "04/11/2013 - 20:43":

That's music to my ears Ben, keep up the good work 🙂
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