"No landlord wants to stand in the way of the provision of childcare, but the Government must recognise that housing providers are not the issue."
The Government is encouraging landlords to be ‘open minded’ when tenants ask if they can become childminders.
In a letter to housing associations, home builders and landlords, Claire Coutinho, Conservative MP for East Surrey, said that "as many as 1 in 8 are being barred from doing the job they love in their own homes due to restrictions from their landlords".
According to data collected by Tiney, a childminder agency, one in eight prospective childminders who did not complete the registration process were unable to do so because they could not secure permission to work from their home.
Childminders who are living in leasehold properties are also sometimes being blocked by restrictive covenants, which say that the properties cannot be used for business purposes. Some who are living in rented accommodation have found that their tenancy agreements prevent them from registering their business or that their landlords’ mortgage agreements include restrictions from the lender.
However, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) says landlords are not to blame for the childminding crisis.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, said: “No landlord wants to stand in the way of the provision of childcare, but the Government must recognise that housing providers are not the issue.
“The Government’s encouragement to landlords to ‘be open-minded’ is no-doubt well-meaning but fails entirely to acknowledge the very real issues facing the childcare industry or the legitimate concerns of housing providers.
“Mortgage lenders and insurers need to be more flexible in enabling landlords to allow childminders to operate from the properties they let. Tenancy deposits must also be allowed to reflect the greater risk of damage to properties being used for childminding.
“We will continue to work with the Government on the difficulties and barriers landlords face in enabling tenants to become childminders but refuse to accept the blame for systemic issues in another industry.”
