Test Valley Borough Council has been given a £37,000 grant by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to support the area’s most at-risk tenants.
The majority of the money will go towards identifying landlords renting out properties in poor conditions or illegally.
One of the crackdown’s focuses will be discovering landlords who lease out properties to individuals or groups of people from multiple households without the correct property-renting licences.
Councillor Phil Bundy, health spokesman for the council, said:
We have lots of fantastic landlords in the borough who are providing good accommodation but this grant will enable us to identify and take enforcement action against those who provide sub-standard housing. It will also enable us to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are living in suitable accommodation, allowing us to target our resources at helping those most in need.
The news comes just months after no-fault evictions were banned in England, meaning that private landlords are no longer legally able to evict tenants at short notice without good reason.
Forty properties are currently licensed under Test Valley Borough Council, but many more multiple-occupancy properties are thought to be leased unofficially.
