Exclusive: FOI reveals £5.2m in landlord fines as six councils fail to disclose totals

English councils issued at least 901 civil penalties worth £5,226,911.17 to private landlords across 2023/24 and 2024/25, a Landlord Knowledge Freedom of Information investigation has found.

But the true total is likely to be higher because six councils failed to provide substantive figures within the statutory deadline, leaving part of the national enforcement picture undisclosed.

Based on usable like-for-like data from 14 councils, the investigation points to wide variation in how often authorities fine landlords, how much they seek to recover, and how transparent they are about enforcement activity.

The findings come as councils prepare for a bigger enforcement role under the Renters’ Rights Act, raising the stakes around how consistently local authorities use and report civil penalties.

Camden and Newcastle lead the disclosed enforcement totals

Among the councils that supplied usable figures, Camden reported the highest total number and value of civil penalties, issuing 303 penalties across the two financial years with a combined value of £2,537,736.

Newcastle reported 230 penalties worth £204,410.53, while Sheffield disclosed 85 penalties worth £693,618.14. Liverpool’s late-recovered response added another 21 penalties worth £141,507.50 to the overall total.

Other significant totals came from:

Brent – 65 penalties worth £375,300
Newham – 52 penalties worth £216,200
Westminster – 46 penalties worth £325,380
Bristol – 29 penalties worth £177,913
Nottingham – 28 penalties worth £109,103
Birmingham – 16 like-for-like housing penalties worth £133,293
Liverpool – 21 penalties worth £141,507.50

At the other end of the scale, Brighton & Hove reported just two penalties worth £1,450, while Tower Hamlets disclosed eight penalties worth £60,000. Nottingham is included in the running total using figures published on the council’s housing offences page after it relied on a Section 21 FOIA response rather than supplying a clean table.

The variation does not automatically prove one council is tougher or weaker than another. Local housing stock, licensing coverage, enforcement priorities and evidence thresholds all differ. But the scale of the gaps suggests landlord enforcement remains far from consistent, with some councils pursuing penalties routinely and others appearing far less active – or far less transparent.

Licensing and HMO breaches dominate the penalty picture

Where councils provided offence breakdowns, the most common penalties were linked to HMO licensing, HMO management regulations, selective licensing breaches, improvement notices and, in some areas, MEES-related failings.

Camden’s figures were heavily concentrated in HMO licensing and management offences. Westminster said its penalties covered areas including HMO licensing, MEES breaches, improvement notices, client money protection and redress scheme failures. Wandsworth said all of its recorded penalties in the period were tied to HMO licensing offences.

The disclosed data suggests councils are most often using civil penalties in areas where enforcement is relatively structured and document-heavy, particularly licensing and formal notice compliance, rather than in more contested areas such as illegal eviction or harassment. That matters because it shows where councils are most likely to act quickly, and where landlords are most exposed to financial penalties. Landlord Knowledge has already reported how council enforcement is expected to move faster after the Renters’ Rights Act, making local enforcement culture more important rather than less.

Collection rates and appeals reveal the limits of enforcement

The figures also show that issuing a financial penalty is only part of the story. In several cases, collection rates and appeal outcomes raise questions about how effective enforcement really is once fines are imposed.

Westminster reported collection rates of 62% in 2023/24 and 88% in 2024/25, but also said all appeals in the two years reviewed were upheld, with two upheld in 2023/24 and three upheld in 2024/25.

Wandsworth reported collection rates of 0 in both years. It also said that in 2023/24, two appeals reduced penalties from £30,000 to £8,000.

Lambeth, whose reply required conservative cleaning because its schedule mixed civil penalties with other notices and charges, indicated a collection rate of around 40%. Brighton & Hove reported a collection rate of 17.24%.

Those figures suggest the value of penalties issued on paper can differ sharply from what councils ultimately recover in practice. For landlords, that points to a system that can be forceful at the notice stage but much less consistent when it comes to turning penalties into paid money. That fits a wider pattern Landlord Knowledge highlighted in its earlier analysis of how little of some landlord fine totals councils actually collect.

Latest late replies added to the totals

The latest substantive responses to be added came from Westminster, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Birmingham and Liverpool.

Westminster said it had issued:

29 penalties worth £204,020 in 2023/24
17 penalties worth £121,360 in 2024/25

Wandsworth disclosed:

6 penalties worth £71,000 in 2023/24
5 penalties worth £117,500 in 2024/25

Lambeth’s attached schedule was less straightforward, but a conservative review identified:

0 clear civil penalties for 2023/24
5 civil penalties for 2024/25
£62,500 in identifiable penalty value

Birmingham’s response also needed careful handling because it combined two separate housing datasets and a further Trading Standards section. For the like-for-like housing figures used in the running total, Birmingham disclosed:

Property Licensing: 0 penalties in 2023/24 and 9 in 2024/25, worth £0 and £62,348
Private Rented Service: 3 penalties in 2023/24 and 4 in 2024/25, worth £4,445 and £66,500
Collection data: 50.7% for Property Licensing in 2024/25; not available for Private Rented Service

The same Birmingham reply also disclosed three Trading Standards civil penalties against estate agents worth £257,000, but because that section was not split cleanly across the requested years it has been noted separately rather than rolled into the headline total.

Liverpool’s late-recovered response added a further 21 penalties to the running total. The council disclosed 5 penalties in 2023/24 and 16 in 2024/25, with line-item values in the PDF adding up to £59,490 and £82,017.50 respectively. Liverpool also said there were 0 appeals in 2023/24 and 2 appeals in 2024/25, with both notices upheld but one reduced, and collection rates of 85% and 72%.

Because some replies were incomplete, inconsistent or mixed with other enforcement data, the running total in this investigation reflects only figures judged usable on a like-for-like basis. That means the true national total could be higher once the remaining councils disclose their figures.

Six councils still failed to provide substantive figures

While 14 councils supplied usable data, six had still not provided a substantive response by the latest check.

The councils still outstanding were:

Hackney
Southwark
Manchester
Leeds
Salford
Coventry

Of those, Manchester at least sent a delay acknowledgement on 23 April, but had still supplied no usable figures by the latest review.

Southwark, Leeds, Salford and Coventry were all chased on 23 April but had still not produced substantive figures by the latest review. Hackney, which required use of an online form rather than email, remained a manual chase case with no usable response logged.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, public authorities are normally required to respond within 20 working days. Missing that deadline does not automatically mean the information will never be disclosed, but it does leave part of the national enforcement picture obscured. Landlord Knowledge also recently looked at how tribunal decisions can reshape landlord penalty risk, making transparent local enforcement data even more valuable.

Editor’s view
The striking point here is not just that councils have issued more than £5.2m in landlord penalties. It is that a sizeable chunk of the picture is still missing because six authorities did not produce substantive figures within the expected timeframe. If civil penalties are meant to be a serious part of housing enforcement, councils should be able to show clearly how often they use them, what they recover and whether the penalties hold up when challenged.

Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 21 May 2026

Sources: Landlord Knowledge FOI investigation, council FOI responses, council published enforcement material
Related reading: Landlords face faster council enforcement after RRA