Selective licensing in Blackpool

What the designation says

Blackpool operates a selective licensing scheme covering the eight inner wards of Bloomfield, Brunswick, Claremont, Talbot, Tyldesley, Warbreck, Waterloo and Victoria, taking in roughly 11,000 privately rented properties. The scheme began on 1 April 2025, when applications opened, and landlords in the designated area were required to apply by 1 October 2025. It runs for five years. Within those wards every privately rented home needs a licence regardless of how many people occupy it, subject to the usual exemptions, so an ordinary flat or a house let to a single household is caught as well as shared housing. The standard fee for a single dwelling is £772 for the whole five-year period. The council states that the scheme generates no profit and that fee income is returned to running it and supporting landlords. Letting an unlicensed property inside a designated ward is a criminal offence carrying a civil penalty of up to £30,000 or prosecution, and exposes the landlord to a rent repayment order.

What this means for a landlord

A licence must be in place before the property is let, not applied for afterwards. Operating unlicensed in a designated area is a criminal offence: a civil penalty of up to £30,000 per offence, a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent, and a section 21 notice that cannot be served while the property is unlicensed. Mandatory HMO licensing applies separately and everywhere, wherever a property is let to five or more people forming two or more households.

Blackpool's own licensing page →