Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the evidential basis was for his Department not including the provisions of section 80(4) of the Housing Act 2004 in refusing Liverpool City Council's application to be area for selective landlord licensing.

Liverpool City Council made an application for selective licensing under the condition of low housing demand across the whole city.

The evidence provided by the local authority was carefully considered against all the relevant statutory conditions, including those contained within section 80(4) of the Housing Act 2004. The application did not meet the statutory tests because it did not sufficiently evidence the existence of low housing demand in every ward in the city, nor that every ward would become an area of low housing demand.