If it feels as though a great many councils have started consulting on selective licensing at once, that is because the thing that used to slow them down was removed.
What the approval requirement was
Section 82 of the Housing Act 2004 provides that a selective licensing designation must be confirmed by the Secretary of State, or fall within a general approval given by the Secretary of State, before it can come into force. For years the general approval in place was narrow: a council could designate on its own authority only where the scheme covered no more than 20% of its geographical area or 20% of its privately rented homes. Anything larger required an individual application to the department, with the evidence base, the consultation, and the wait that implied.
That threshold shaped what councils did. Borough-wide selective licensing was effectively a central-government decision, and a council wanting one either scaled its ambition down to fit under 20% or spent a year seeking confirmation.
What changed in December 2024
A new General Approval, made in December 2024, removed the 20% threshold for selective licensing. Councils can now designate schemes of any size on their own authority, subject to the statutory conditions in sections 80 and 81 — the evidence of low demand, anti-social behaviour, poor conditions, deprivation, crime or migration; the consultation; and the requirement that designation will help.
The conditions did not soften. What went was the ceiling and the queue.
Why the effect is arriving now, not then
A designation is not a fast instrument. From a decision to explore a scheme, the sequence runs: gather the evidence base, consult for ten to twelve weeks, analyse responses, take a cabinet report, make the designation, then wait the statutory three months before it comes into force. Eighteen months from start to commencement is ordinary.
December 2024 plus eighteen months lands in mid-2026. That is where we are, and it is why the pipeline looks the way it does.
What that looks like in our records
We currently hold 6 schemes designated and not yet in force, and 87 of the 318 councils in England and Wales operating at least one discretionary scheme.
The borough-wide ambition is the tell. Croydon's new selective scheme covers 14 of 28 wards — around 72.5% of its private rented sector, far beyond what the old 20% threshold allowed without confirmation. Consultations that closed in 2026 at Medway, Bolton, Halton and Tamworth are all borough- or town-wide in scope. These are schemes that, before December 2024, would have needed the Secretary of State to say yes.
What it means for a landlord
- "My council has never had selective licensing" is a weaker signal than it was. The absence of a scheme historically may reflect the old threshold rather than a settled local view.
- Consultations now matter more. They are the last decision point, because the confirmation stage that used to follow is gone.
- Lead times are still long. A designation made today typically commences three to twelve months later, so a consultation closing now is not a licence requirement now.
- Watch for re-designation, not just new schemes. Councils with sub-20% schemes constrained by the old rule can now widen them at renewal.
What has not changed
Additional licensing under section 56 never needed the Secretary of State's confirmation — the approval regime in section 82 applies to selective licensing under Part 3. Mandatory HMO licensing is statutory and needs no designation at all. And the five-year maximum duration is untouched: a bigger scheme is not a longer one.
See what is designated, pending and proposed. Our licensing index covers all 318 councils, and pages carry a callout where a council has consulted but not yet decided.