In order to carry out the specialist analysis the BRE Integrated Housing Stock Model was used as the basis of the work, using the integrated data from the council as part of their previous project². This, coupled with additional datasets provided by the council in relation to Selective Licensing and noise nuisance allowed for the specialist analysis to be undertaken.

Current Selective Licensing scheme analysis

The BRE Model was used as the baseline to demonstrate the level of category 1 hazards across Bexley before the Selective Licensing scheme was introduced and improvements were made. By taking this baseline a ‘before’ picture was created, essentially providing the basis on which to conduct the analysis.

The council provided records of properties that had previously contained HHSRS hazards which had subsequently been mitigated, and records of properties that have a licence under the Selective Licensing scheme. It was assumed that all addresses provided to us as part of a licensing scheme were PRS and they have been marked as such in the HSCD. The total number of dwellings with hazards which were mitigated and that BRE were able to match to the Selective Licensing list was 167.

The list of 167 dwellings provided by the council was integrated into the BRE Model to show the specific dwellings that had previously contained a hazard. Based on the BRE model, 11 of these properties were already estimated to have a hazard. For the remaining properties it was important to perform a re-balancing exercise at COA level to ensure the total number of dwellings with hazards remained at 8,707 (this was the total number of hazards estimated from the BRE Stock Model).

Once the baseline had been determined, the dwellings that had their hazards mitigated could be removed from the list of dwellings with hazards, to create an ‘after’ picture which then allowed a comparison to be drawn between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture to show the impact of the interventions.

Private rented sector analysis

Following the current Selective Licensing scheme analysis, the updated BRE Housing Stock Model data was used to assess all private rented dwellings across the borough in relation to the criteria that determine whether adopting a Selective Licensing scheme could be beneficial (see Section 4 for more detail). The updated ‘after’ picture that was developed for the current scheme analysis was used for the subsequent private rented sector analysis, to ensure the most up-to-date picture of the overall stock was evaluated.

The wards with the highest levels of private rented dwellings were identified and analysed in relation to property condition, deprivation, migration and anti-social behaviour (ASB). The associated maps and tables identify the particular wards with a high level of private rented dwellings and especially poor property conditions, enabling these areas to be considered for future Selective Licensing schemes.

Footnotes:

²The initial project was conducted in 2020, and this report is an extension of the analysis conducted as part of the original work.