I’m Minesh, a Labour & Co-operative Councillor for Crookes & Crosspool. One of the reasons I first stood for council back in 2022 was because of my own experiences as a student renter in Crookes.
In the last student house I lived in, on Loxley View Road, the kitchen ceiling collapsed. For months, we had to keep a bucket underneath to catch water leaking from the bathroom above. It took months of pestering – and the threat of withholding rent – before our landlord finally repaired it. And we weren’t alone. Everyone I knew had a horror story: damp and mould spreading across walls, broken boilers left unrepaired in the winter, rats in kitchens. Hazardous and unsafe living conditions were normalised.
Later, I learned that councils have powers to tackle this – dedicated teams to enforce housing standards, and legal tools to crack down on bad landlords. But they’re not used nearly enough.
Why? Partly, I think, because the voices of renters, and particularly young people and students, are underrepresented in local government. With a high workload relative to the stipend, councillors tend to be people who can afford to take it on because they are retired or independently wealthy, or those of us juggling council duties and a full-time job. You don’t get many councillors who rent, and that shapes what gets prioritised.
Too often, students are treated as transitory, and not given political priority because they might move within a year or two. That becomes self-fulfilling: I’ve met students who said they won’t vote locally because they think they won’t be here long enough for it to matter. But it does matter. Demanding better housing now doesn’t just help you. It helps the renters who will live here after you. And regardless of how long someone stays, no one should be forced to live in unsafe, undignified housing.
One powerful tool that councils can use is landlord licensing.
Licensing schemes allow councils to require landlords in a given area to obtain a license before they can rent out a property. That license can be conditional on minimum safety and maintenance standards. You can bar landlords with criminal records altogether. It gives councils teeth, not just to respond after something goes wrong, but to proactively raise standards.
That is why I’ve launched a campaign for a landlord licensing scheme in Crookes, Crookesmoor and Broomhill, areas with large numbers of students, and large numbers of renters. I know from my own experience, and from countless conversations with renters, that there are far too many people here living in poor-quality homes managed by landlords who feel no pressure to improve.
Everyone deserves a home that is safe, warm, and dry. No one’s living conditions should depend on whether you happen to find one of the so-called “good” landlords.
We know licensing works. Sheffield Council previously piloted a licensing scheme covering London Road, Abbeydale Road, and Chesterfield Road. Over five years, 700 homes were inspected, which uncovered hundreds of hazards: fire risks, damp and mould, broken electrics. It forced landlords to spend over £250,000 to fix their dangerous properties, and some of the worst offenders were prosecuted.
If we can do it there – and can see that it works – then we can and must do it elsewhere.
Yet when I raised this recently, the Council’s Housing lead dismissed the idea. He told me that he would not support a licensing scheme in Crookes, Crookesmoor and Broomhill because that area was ‘already one of the most regulated in the city’, pointing to the voluntary Snug landlord-accreditation scheme as proof.
But that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. In the Crookes & Crosspool ward, out of 1,980 private rental properties, just 32 of them are Snug-accredited. That’s just 1.6%.
In Broomhill & Sharrow Vale, it’s 155 out of 3,972 homes. That’s 3.9%. Across both wards combined, only 3% of private rentals are Snug-accredited.
In no sense is that a satisfactory level of regulation, and if anything exposes how little oversight currently exists in our area. Voluntary schemes don’t work when participation is that low. We need a system that protects all renters, not just a lucky few.
Landlord licensing is basic fairness, making sure that the right to safe home is available to everyone. We owe that to all students, and every renter across the city. I’m currently working to build the case for our licensing scheme. If you live in Crookes, Crookesmoor or Broomhill, and are having issues with your house or your landlord, please don’t hesitate to contact me at minesh.parekh@councillor.sheffield.gov.uk so we can show the council the scale of the issues faced.
