Council licensing in East Midlands

Licensing in Leicester

Leicester has selective licensing in part of the council area.

Checked 15 Oct 2026

Check an address in Leicester

We'll match the postcode to its ward and the schemes below.

Licensing, ward by ward

Select a ward to see its name and licensing.

May be covered: check the council's map21

Current ward boundaries from ONS. Some homes are exempt, so check your postcode and the scheme details below.

Selective licensing: Part of the council area
Additional HMO licensing: No
Article 4 on house shares: Yes
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Selective licence
In forceMedium confidence
Leicester selective licensing: East, West and South clusters (2022 designation)
Area
East cluster in part of Stoneygate; West cluster in parts of Westcotes, Fosse, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields; South cluster in part of Saffron. The blue-edged Annex A map and exact numbered road entries define coverage. Whole-ward or whole-road matching is unsafe.
Runs
10 October 2022 to 8 October 2027
Fee
Published standard fee: £1,290
June 2026 regulatory schedule and live page agree: £1,290, comprising £1,032 on application and £258 on issue. The schedule says no discounts applicable; the live page says a purchaser applying within six months may qualify, so confirm any purchase exception with the council. Historic £1,090 and early-bird figures in the 2022 policy/application guide are superseded. Fee is not prorated for the remaining scheme term.
Who needs one
Privately rented houses and flats occupied under non-exempt tenancies or licences in the designated areas, including smaller HMOs not required to be licensed under Part 2.
Exemptions
The designation excludes Part 2 licensable HMOs, registered social landlord tenancies, interim/final management orders, approved temporary exemptions and statutory exempt tenancies/buildings.
Apply on the council’s website Council's map or designation
How we checked this
Made 7 July 2022; commenced 10 October 2022. The notice says it shall cease to have effect on 9 October 2027, so under this dataset’s last-day convention the recorded end_date is 8 October; confirm any conflicting inclusive expiry wording. The designation and licensing policy street schedules differ: for example Devana Road, Evington Road, Fosse Road South, Hinckley Road, Narborough Road, Norfolk Street and Woodgate have different ranges/suffixes; the exact address must be confirmed on the legal map/council checker. No automatic street matcher is supplied. The 2022 notice and policy retain superseded penalty, RRO and section 21 wording, which is not presented as current law. The March 2026 scrutiny dashboard planned a review towards the end of 2026; a review plan is not a renewal designation. Independent verification recovered a second legal designation made 29 September 2022, operative 29 December 2022, covering omitted road/property entries; this is recorded separately below. The September Council report says the July maps were correct and identifies 830 properties omitted from its street list. Both instruments must be considered together; not every difference between the older policy and designation is resolved by copying a single street schedule. Five years is the maximum ordinary term, capped by scheme expiry; the policy also provides shorter/annual terms in specified cases.
Sources
Selective licence
In force
Leicester selective licensing: omitted streets and properties (No.2 designation 2022)
Area
Annex A specifies: Briton Street number 1; Conifer Close whole street; Devana Road number 12; Fosse Road South number 1; Norfolk Street numbers 90–92 evens; Paget Road whole street; Tudor Road whole street; Westcotes Drive 1–49 and 59–105 odds; Western Road 270–378 even; Woodgate 80–88 even. The designation names parts of Stoneygate, Westcotes, Fosse and Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields. These are exact instrument entries, not permission to match every property on each named road. Use both 2022 instruments and the council address checker. No exhaustive street matcher is supplied because several entries are partial.
Runs
29 December 2022 to 8 October 2027
Fee
Published standard fee: £1,290
June 2026 regulatory schedule and live page agree: £1,290, comprising £1,032 on application and £258 on issue. The schedule says no discounts applicable; the live page says a purchaser applying within six months may qualify, so confirm any purchase exception with the council. Historic £1,090 and early-bird figures in the 2022 policy/application guide are superseded. Fee is not prorated for the remaining scheme term.
Who needs one
Privately rented houses and flats occupied under non-exempt tenancies or licences in the designated areas, including smaller HMOs not required to be licensed under Part 2.
Exemptions
The designation excludes Part 2 licensable HMOs, registered social landlord tenancies, interim/final management orders, approved temporary exemptions and statutory exempt tenancies/buildings.
Apply on the council’s website Council's map or designation
How we checked this
Made 29 September 2022 and in force from 29 December 2022. Clause 3 says the designation shall cease to have effect on 9 October 2027; this schema therefore records 8 October as its last day, matching the first designation. The Council approved this second designation to cover streets/properties erroneously omitted in July; its report says the original maps were correct. Annex A was independently read from rendered native PDF pixels. This is selective licensing under Part 3, not an additional-HMO scheme under Part 2. Same current selective fee guidance applies; purchaser-discount conflict remains unresolved. Five years is a maximum ordinary licence term capped by scheme expiry, with shorter terms possible. Historic sanctions in the notice are not current-law guidance.
Sources
Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Leicester fees)
Area
National mandatory HMO licensing throughout Leicester city. Leicestershire district councils are separate authorities.
Fee
Published standard fee: £900
Live HMO page lists £900. The June 2026 regulatory schedule confirms £655 application plus £245 enforcement, total £900, with HMO charges to be reviewed separately as part of the wider strategy.
Who needs one
Large HMOs occupied by at least five tenants forming more than one household, sharing toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities, subject to statutory exclusions.
Exemptions
Council guidance lists the purpose-built-flat exclusion and converted-flat/owner-occupation cases. These brief summaries do not resolve every building configuration; check the national statutory definition and council for unusual cases.
Apply on the council’s website
How we checked this
Current HMO guidance distinguishes general HMO standards from mandatory licensing. It links an online application and lists management obligations. No active additional HMO licensing designation or approved future scheme was found in current licensing guidance and targeted council/committee searches. A generic description of additional licensing powers or the earlier discretionary consultation is not proof of an operating scheme. A June 2025 council strategy briefing proposed deferring an additional-licensing consultation until the Renters’ Rights changes were implemented and understood, potentially alongside selective renewal consultation; this is a policy intention, not an operating additional designation.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Leicester has an Article 4 direction on HMOs (houses in multiple occupation, or shared houses). Turning a family home into a shared house may need planning permission.

Area: Mapped parts of Leicester, not the whole city. The original direction covers Westcotes, Clarendon Park and central areas, first effective 20 August 2014 according to current council guidance. The 2021 instrument, made 16 November 2021 and confirmed 17 November 2022, adds mapped West, East and South sub-areas from 28 November 2022, while expressly retaining the original areas. Its addendum clarifies that the restriction is C3-to-C4 conversion under GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 3 Class L(b). The sealed plan and address list include partial roads; a road/ward name alone does not establish coverage. Exact-property checks must use the applicable plans/council map. This planning geography differs from selective licensing. Expanded instrument and addendum: https://www.leicester.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/2021-hmo-article-4-direction-addendum.pdf . Original: https://www.leicester.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/hmo-article-4-direction.pdf .
Takes effect: 20 Aug 2014

Council source

Civil penalty policy

The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine.

The independently recovered council decision approves a revised housing civil penalty policy on 17 October 2024 (effective 25 October after call-in), predating the RRA. It is evidence of that historical revision, not proof that no subsequent policy exists. Targeted current council/committee searches did not recover an adopted RRA replacement or current matrix; current update status therefore remains null. The separately linked selective licensing enforcement policy is the 2022–2027 version and contains historical sanctions. Do not present old statutory maxima as current law.

Leicester's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Leicester.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Leicester on 15 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

Not yet confirmed
The separate September 2022 No.2 designation, now included, resolves some omissions from July street lists (including Devana12 and Woodgate80–88 even). Exact address applicability still requires both instruments and the legal maps/council checker; reconcile any remaining range/suffix discrepancies with the older enforcement policy. Streets stays empty for both partial-geography records.
Not yet confirmed
Resolve the notice cease-on 9 October 2027 wording against any guidance that treats 9 October as inclusive. The schema last-day convention currently records 8 October.
Not yet confirmed
The current fee schedule says no discounts, while the selective landing page suggests a possible discount for purchasers applying within six months; confirm eligibility and the payable invoice.
Not yet confirmed
No active additional-HMO scheme, further approved future licensing designation or live renewal consultation was found in current council/committee/consultation searches. June 2025 strategy material proposed deferring additional consultation until RRA implementation was understood, while March/June 2026 scrutiny referred to selective review work. Re-check later decisions; review plans are not approved licensing designations.
Not yet confirmed
Obtain any adopted RRA-updated civil penalty policy and current matrix. The independently confirmed October 2024 decision is a historical revision; no later adoption was located, which does not prove absence. updated_for_renters_rights_act remains null.
Not yet confirmed
The present HMO page does not publish a licence term or standalone standard licence conditions; those fields remain null.
Not yet confirmed
Both original and expanded Article 4 instruments have now been fetched; the expanded sealed plan, commencement annotation and clarifying addendum were visually inspected. Exact individual-property boundary determination still requires council confirmation/map checking; partial-road references are not whole-road coverage.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Leicester is in East Midlands, where registration is planned from 15 February 2027 to 14 May 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register