Bristol City Council is extending its existing licensing schemes to other parts of the city and has announced a licence fee of around £1,800, although this is subject to discounts for relevant safety and energy performance certificates. It seems that the discounts can bring the fee down to £912. Part of the problem seems to be that landlords are too submissive and do too little to challenge the Council’s proposals. The Chair of the Association of Local Landlords (Wessex) [ALL (Wessex)], Rob Crawford, called for a thorough audit of the Council’s costs compared to the revenue received. So this is an appeal to individual landlords – we need to get together a working group of financially minded people to analyse BCC’s income and costs from licensing. If you believe you can make a contribution, then please get in touch with this organisation. There is widespread belief amongst landlords that although Councils are not allowed by law to spend the fees received on anything other than administering the scheme, some Councils may be using the money to fund other services. According to Landlord Today, when Bristol extended its selective licensing scheme it estimated the additional costs to be £3.5m although it is estimated that the income could be in the region of £5.48m. So where is the difference, about £2m, going?