A CONTROVERSIAL crackdown on Worcester's rental market can today be revealed - sparking fears thousands of people will be stung in the fall-out.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the city council is considering forcing private landlords to stump up £670 for their details to be kept on a new public register for the first time.

The new database will fund a war-chest as high as £1.3 million and lead to a wave of regular enforcement inspections across the city to drive up standards in squalid homes.

And under a "fit and proper persons test" those with convictions for violence, drugs, fraud or sexual offences will be barred.

The move, one of the most dramatic council policies for years, would hit an estimated 2,000 homes currently under no local authority controls or inspections.

It was yesterday slated by the National Landlords Association (NLA), which insists the bill would be passed down to tenants.

Under the proposal, the crackdown will apply to properties containing three or more people from two different families, known as Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

It would not apply to landlords with rented homes coming in under the HMO threshold, so for example a property rented to a couple.

At the moment the only people forced to register with the council are those owning HMOs with five or more tenants over three storeys, with a paltry 187 landlords paying £950.

That ruling, made possible by the Housing Act 2004, came into being after the council’s Tory cabinet backed it in April 2005.

The intention is to extend the policy to all HMOs, with the £670 payable once every five years to fund the extra inspections.

Don Robbie, from the National Landlords Association, said: "We are very concerned and are fundamentally, vehemently opposed to this.

"Most landlords will pass it onto tenants, it will affect a lot of people - the council should be focusing on rogue landlords, not further regulation on those doing their job properly.

"We will resist this all we can. It could hit 1,000 landlords."

A spokesman for Premier Places said if the ruling came in, it wants the fees to be broken into monthly instalments to ease the burden.

Andy Lloyd, from Premier Places, said: "The fee for HMO additional licensing would seem to be an inevitable consequence of tighter regulation on all city HMO'S.

"However, Premier Places would like to see the city council accommodate an option for payment of fees by monthly instalments over the first year similar to the way in which council tax is collected and also for a reduction in fees charged on renewal, after five years."

The Conservative cabinet is meeting next Tuesday where it will be asked to send the proposal out for 12 weeks of consultation.

Since 2012 the council has averaged inspections of 162 private rented homes a year, but the feeling is that a register of all HMOs would allow that to expand hugely.

The council also says the move is in response to big rises in rented homes across Worcester, which was just 12 per cent of the total property stock in 2001 but 18 per cent by 2011, as well as the massive growth of the university.

It also says of the 187 HMOs on the current list, 92 per cent required improvements to overcome "significant" problems before getting a licence, and that some were a "real risk" to the health and safety of residents.

Although there are no known figures on the number of HMOs in the city, it is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 based on analysis of housing stock in the city.

The cabinet is keen to stress that it is a long way from making any decisions, and wants to see what people think first.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, deputy leader and cabinet member for economic prosperity, said: "We are considering a consultation to look at the evidence around this, and aim to take a measured view – we have not committed to anything, we are just considering a look at it.

“I am sure landlords will have a view as to whether it is proportionate and necessary. This is not about making money or interfering.

“Conservatives, instinctively only want to get involved when there is an obvious, clear market failure.”

Last year the old Labour administration starting talk of the idea, suggesting it could be applied to all rental homes in the city.

That led to the new, watered-down version which is expected to go out for consultation next week.