A council in Shropshire withdrew a licensing scheme last month before it started, and it's worth a few minutes if you manage shared houses or let to landlords who do.
Telford and Wrekin Council had planned additional HMO licensing, which would have covered shared houses with three or four occupants, at more than £1,500 a property. The National Residential Landlords Association challenged how the consultation was run, and in September the council revoked the scheme. The NRLA had also argued it would overlap with the national landlord register, which opens first in the West Midlands, where Telford sits, on 15 December. The council has paused the process and says it will review its position in 2027.
Think of it like two locks on one door. Each lock might be perfectly reasonable on its own, but the person with the keys now has to carry both, and nobody is quite sure which one the visitor was meant to use. Local schemes and the national register are heading for exactly that situation in places where councils still have their own rules.
For you, the practical question is simple. For each shared house you manage, which layer applies today, which will apply once the register opens in your region (West Midlands from 15 December, other regions through to August 2027), and who is responsible for each? It is easy to answer that for the properties you know well and much harder for the rest of the book.
A clean record of your own properties and landlords in an outcode, with the shared houses marked, is what makes that answerable before a council or the register asks.
Co-founder of Propalt and a property investor and developer for 20 years
