MPs urge Whitehall to review bad debts portal

Committee concludes the Landlord Tap scheme is not “working well”

The government has been urged to conduct a review of how water companies can be helped to track down bad debts amongst private tenants.

In a new report on how the 2010 Flood Management and Water Act is working, the House of Commons’ Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs select committee says that the current Landlord Tap voluntary initiative is not “working well”.

Landlord Tap is a secure data portal, which allows landlords share information about their tenants with water companies.

Much of the cost of covering those who do not pay their water and sewerage bills, which costs the average customer £21 per annum, is attributable to bad debts amongst private tenants, says the report.

However landlords have signed up only 13,000 rental properties in England with the portal, equating to fewer than 1% of the country’s privately rented stock.

By contrast in Wales’ much smaller private rented market, where landlords are obliged to share details of their properties, 58,000 homes are signed up.

The committee recommends that the government should review by the end of this year the impact of the Welsh system on bad debt levels and landlords costs.

And it urges the committee to assess whether the Government should implement provisions in the Flood and Water Management Act requiring landlords to provide information to water and sewerage companies about their tenants for billing purposes.

The report also urges the government to enable the automatic transfer to water and sewerage companies of private sewers, lateral drains and pumping stations built since July 2011.

And it says that ministers should reduce the barriers to the adoption of sustainable urban drainage schemes by water companies such as by clarifying the definition of sewers.