PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Private Rented Housing (14 January 2015)

The Beds in Sheds Taskforce was a specific initiative in 2012 to 2013, to hold a set of summits to bring together councils and central government to ascertain best practice and barriers to be removed to help ensure co-ordinated action against illegal outbuildings.

Summits took place on 27 November 2012, 30 April 2013 and 1 July 2013. It was not an ongoing working group.

In July 2013, £2.6 million was subsequently allocated to nine local authorities to deal with the mainly London-based problem of beds in sheds, with a further £4.1 million of targeted funding to 23 local authorities in December 2013 to tackle rogue landlord behaviour (including beds in sheds).

Thanks to the lessons learnt and best practice adopted from these meetings in 2012 to 2013, we estimate there have been:

• 2,500 streets surveyed
• 30,000 inspections
• 1,100 raids
• 2,800 landlords facing prosecution
• 530 buildings prohibited, and
• 145 sheds demolished.

Following our 2012 publication, we will in due course be publishing refreshed guidance to local authorities on tackling beds in sheds and rogue landlords.

The Immigration Act 2014 contains a raft of measures which puts the law firmly on the side of those who respect it, not those who break it, by:

• stopping migrants using public services to which they are not entitled;
• reducing the pull factors which encourage people to come to the UK for the wrong reasons; and,
• making it easier to remove people who should not be here.