Council licensing · West Midlands

Licensing in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Newcastle-under-Lyme has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Researched 14 October 2026 · Independently checked 14 October 2026

Check a specific address in Newcastle-under-Lyme

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

Licensing, ward by ward

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National rules only21

Current ONS ward boundaries. Exemptions apply. Use the postcode check and scheme details for your property.

Selective licensing: None
Additional HMO licensing: No
Article 4 on house shares: Yes
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Newcastle-under-Lyme fees)
Area
The whole of Newcastle-under-Lyme borough (national scheme).
Fee
£750 for 5 years
New licence fee (for up to five bedrooms) £750, plus £11 for each extra bedroom. Renewal fee (for up to five bedrooms) £555, plus £11 for each extra bedroom. The fee pages show no effective date.
Who needs one
An HMO with 5 or more occupiers. The council defines an HMO as a home where at least 3 tenants live, forming more than 1 household, and share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities.
Notes
This is the national scheme. Newcastle-under-Lyme publishes its own pages and fees. The council says a licence lasts five years and must be renewed before it runs out, and that licences carry management and safety conditions. Applications need gas and electrical safety certificates, fire alarm and emergency lighting certificates, alarm service contracts, PAT certificates and building regulations completion certificates where applicable, and current tenancy agreements. Renewals go through GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-licence/house-in-multiple-occupation-licence/newcastle-under-lyme/renew-1). The council's 'Apply for a licence' page links the generic GOV.UK HMO licence page; the council-specific GOV.UK application is recorded as the apply link.
Apply on the council site
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Newcastle-under-Lyme has an Article 4 direction on houses in multiple occupation. Turning a family home into a shared house may need planning permission.

Area: Sidmouth Avenue, Gower Street, Granville Avenue, Northcote Place and King Street (the area edged red on the direction plan, beside Brampton Park). Article 4(1) direction removing Class L of Part 3 permitted development rights for C3 dwellinghouse to C4 HMO changes of use. Made 17 December 2015 and confirmed in June 2016. It does not cover the rest of the borough; the council's other Article 4 directions cover conservation-area alterations, not changes of use.
Takes effect: 22 December 2015

Council source

Civil penalty policy

The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine. The version we found has been updated for the Renters' Rights Act.

'Civil penalties under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and other housing legislation', the Justice for Tenants model, published on the council's policies page and linked from its Renters' Rights landlord page. A Cabinet report dated 17 March 2026 recommended approving it with a new Housing Enforcement Policy for implementation on 1 May 2026. Statutory maximum £40,000 for licensing offences. Failure to obtain an HMO licence (s.72(1)) starts at £17,000 (£13,600 with the Landlord Type downward adjustment, £20,400 upward). Failure to obtain a selective licence starts at £12,000. A 15% prompt payment discount applies. The published PDF is a scanned image, so it was read page by page.

Newcastle-under-Lyme's civil penalty policy

Consultations

No consultation was recorded when we researched Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Not yet confirmed

These points were unresolved when we researched Newcastle-under-Lyme on 14 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

Not yet confirmed
No selective or additional licensing scheme, consultation or proposal was found. The council does not state the absence, so this is inferred from its HMO pages covering mandatory licensing only.
Not yet confirmed
The Cabinet minutes for 17 March 2026 were not read; adoption is inferred from the policy being published as the council's current civil penalty policy.
Not yet confirmed
The council's HMO page says its Article 4 directions 'affect the type of development rather than the change of use of a building', yet links the Sidmouth Avenue area direction, which does remove C3 to C4 change-of-use rights. The direction text is treated as authoritative.
Not yet confirmed
Not independently re-checked (verification of 2026-10-14): the £17,000 and £12,000 starting points and the 15% prompt-payment discount in the civil penalty policy, because the PDF is a scanned image and only its first page was re-read.

Landlord register

Licensing is separate from the national landlord register. Newcastle-under-Lyme is in West Midlands, where the planned registration window runs from 15 December 2026 to 14 March 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Register dates, fee and documents