Slough Borough Council has opened a 10-week consultation on licensing plans that would pull almost 17,000 private rented homes into new controls, with landlords facing fees of £750 for selective licences and £950 for additional HMO licences lasting up to five years.
The key shift is that the proposal has moved from cabinet-stage intent to a live consultation running from 15 July to 23 September. The council is no longer talking in broad terms about a possible return to licensing – it is now asking landlords, agents and tenants to respond to a scheme that would extend regulation beyond larger HMOs to smaller shared houses and a wide slice of Slough’s wider private rented stock.
For landlords, that matters now because the cost, coverage and final conditions of a scheme are often shaped during consultation rather than after approval. Investors with homes in Slough now have a short window to check whether properties could be caught, price the extra compliance burden and challenge details before the council decides whether to press ahead.
Slough moves from licensing plan to live consultation
Landlord Knowledge reported in May that Slough was preparing a borough-wide return to selective and additional licensing. The latest step confirms that process has started.
According to the council, the proposed selective licensing scheme would apply to privately rented homes let to a single family, a single tenant or up to two unrelated sharers. The additional licensing scheme would cover smaller HMOs with three or four tenants sharing facilities, going beyond the larger HMOs already caught by mandatory rules.
The scale is significant. Slough says the two schemes together would cover almost 17,000 licensable private rented properties, including an estimated 2,024 HMOs. In its case for intervention, the council said 22.3 percent of predicted HMOs contain a serious hazard and that HMOs were linked to a disproportionate share of private rented sector enforcement notices between 2020 and 2025.
The council’s published consultation notice says landlords would pay for licences lasting up to five years, while the final decision will return to cabinet after the consultation closes. A council summary of the scheme is available on the Slough Borough Council consultation page.
Fees and timing put pressure on landlords with multiple homes
The headline cost is £750 for a selective licence and £950 for an additional HMO licence. For one property, that may look manageable. For landlords with several homes in Slough, the bill rises quickly before any upgrade works, management changes or professional fees are added.
That is why this is more than a routine local consultation. Slough is effectively testing whether it can bring nearly the whole local private rented sector into a formal licensing framework at a time when many councils are widening intervention and landlords are already dealing with new compliance demands. Landlord Knowledge’s earlier coverage of rising licensing costs showed how sharply fees can vary once boroughs expand local schemes.
Smaller HMOs that have so far sat outside Slough’s local licensing net may need a new layer of paperwork, checks and management evidence if the scheme is approved. Landlords who assume the proposal only affects larger shared houses risk missing the real reach of the consultation.
Why the council says wider controls are needed
Slough says the schemes are designed to improve housing conditions, raise management standards, reduce overcrowding and cut anti-social behaviour. The authority also says it previously relied on enforcement and landlord accreditation, but now believes licensing is the stronger tool, especially in the HMO sector.
Councillor Zafar Satti, lead member for public protection and regulatory services at Slough Borough Council, said tougher rules for the private rented sector and HMOs would help protect residents and communities while improving housing standards.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s May report on Slough’s earlier cabinet plans, which showed the council was already building a hazards-and-enforcement case for a wider return to licensing. The new consultation suggests that direction has held, and landlords now need to focus less on whether Slough is serious and more on how broad, costly and prescriptive the final scheme could become.
What this means for landlords
- If you own in Slough: check now whether each property would fall into selective licensing, additional licensing or neither under the consultation draft.
- If you run smaller shared houses: do not assume only larger HMOs are affected – the proposal reaches three- and four-person HMOs too.
- Watch for: any final fee structure, licence conditions, exemptions and implementation timetable after 23 September.
- Bottom line: Slough has moved from signalling a comeback for licensing to consulting on one of the wider local schemes now on the table.
Editor’s view
Once a council opens consultation with fee figures and property counts on the table, landlords should treat it as a live commercial risk rather than background policy noise. In Slough, the sensible move is to cost it out now and challenge the weak points before the cabinet decision is made.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 21 July 2026
Sources: Slough Borough Council consultation notice, Slough Borough Council property licensing consultation materials
Related reading: Slough moves to revive borough-wide landlord licensing
