Every discretionary licensing scheme in England and Wales exists because a council made a document. That document — the designation notice — is short, public, and settles every question a landlord actually has. Almost nobody reads it, because council websites summarise it and the summaries are easier.
The summaries are also where the errors are. So it is worth twenty minutes learning to read the original.
The six things a notice tells you
1. Which power it was made under
Near the top, the notice names its section. Section 56 is additional licensing, for HMOs outside the mandatory regime. Section 80 is selective licensing, for ordinary private lets. These are different schemes under different Parts of the Housing Act 2004, and a notice citing one tells you nothing about the other.
York's notice is titled, in full: "The City of York Council Designation of an Area for Additional Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation, section 56, Housing Act 2004". That title alone tells you it is HMOs, not single lets, and that a separate selective question is unanswered by it.
2. The three dates
This is the part that matters most and the part summaries mangle.
- Made — the day the council formally resolved. Nothing is required of you.
- Comes into force — the day the requirement starts.
- Ceases — the day it ends. Maximum five years, no rollover.
York's notice gives all three: made 17 August 2022, in force 1 April 2023, ceasing 31 March 2028. Seven and a half months between making and commencement, which is typical and is exactly the window landlords misread.
Croydon's section 80 notice states at paragraph 5 that the designation "is made on 25 March 2026 and will come into force on 1st September 2026". Croydon's own website said 25 September. The notice wins — see the Croydon case.
3. The area, as drawn at designation
The notice defines the area, usually by naming wards and referring to a map annexed to it. That map is the boundary. Ward names drift as boundaries are redrawn; the designation does not follow them. See ward boundaries versus designations.
4. What kind of property is caught
An additional licensing notice defines the HMOs it covers — commonly three or four occupiers in two or more households, and often section 257 HMOs, meaning converted blocks of flats where the conversion did not meet the Building Regulations of the day. A selective notice usually catches all privately rented properties in the area, then lists exemptions.
5. The exemptions
Properties already licensed under another Part, registered provider tenancies, certain management orders, some business and holiday lets, long leases and resident-landlord arrangements. These are narrower than most landlords assume.
6. Who made it and under what authority
The notice records the decision-making route — cabinet, full council, or officer under delegated powers — and, for larger selective schemes, confirmation by the Secretary of State where the General Approval threshold is exceeded.
A notice can also tell you a scheme is over
Woking is the worked example. A selective designation covering part of the borough came into force on 1 April 2018 and ceased on 31 March 2023. It was not replaced. Woking's selective licensing pages and its selective licensing public notice have both been withdrawn — and a withdrawn notice is itself information: it is the council saying the instrument no longer stands.
Woking's current scheme is borough-wide additional HMO licensing, designated September 2025 and in force from 5 January 2026. A landlord who remembered "Woking has licensing" from 2019 and assumed it still meant their single-household let would be wrong twice over: the selective scheme has gone, and the one that replaced it covers a different kind of property.
Two warning signs in a document that looks official
Unfilled placeholders. A committee appendix reading "The designation was made on [INSERT DATE]" is a draft, whatever its URL or title says. We took a 2029 cease date from exactly such a document for York before catching it against the signed instruments, which both say 31 March 2028.
Recommendation language. "Cabinet is recommended to", "resolve there is a need", "seeks approval" — these describe a proposal, not a designation. A committee asked to designate has not designated.
Where to find the notice
Councils publish designations on the licensing pages, in the committee system — ModernGov, CMIS and similar — and sometimes only as a PDF attached to a cabinet report. Searching the council domain for the scheme name plus "designation" usually finds it faster than navigating the site.
We link the source on every council page. Our licensing index records the designation dates we hold and the council document they came from.