Slough landlord licensing is coming back... get your EICR sorted before it lands

If you let out a property in Slough, you've probably heard licensing is on the way back. There's a fair bit of noise about it, some of it wrong, so here's where things actually stand... and the one job I'd get ahead of now while there's no queue.

Where Slough licensing actually stands

Slough's old additional HMO and selective licensing schemes ceased on 30 June 2024. Since then the council has been working on bringing both back, borough-wide and bigger than before... a cabinet report in April 2026 set out plans covering an estimated 2,024 HMOs and around 14,686 privately rented homes, with a public consultation to follow.

Important bit: as I write this, nothing new is designated or in force. It's a proposal at the consultation stage. So don't let anyone tell you that you "need a selective licence" in Slough today... that scheme isn't live yet. What I'd do is check the council's own property-licensing page at slough.gov.uk for the current status before you act on anything, because this is moving through 2026 and the timing matters.

Mandatory HMO licensing never went away

One thing that did not lapse in 2024: if you let to five or more people forming two or more households, you still need a mandatory HMO licence. Renting a licensable HMO without one is an offence under section 72 of the Housing Act 2004. That's national law, nothing to do with the local scheme, and it's been running the whole time.

The paperwork every scheme will want... your EICR

Here's why I'm writing this as an electrician rather than a housing lawyer. Whatever happens with the local schemes, you already have a legal duty on the electrics.

Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, every rented home needs a satisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), an inspection of the fixed wiring, renewed at least every five years. And if the council asks for a copy, you must hand it over within seven days of a written request. Fall short and the penalty runs up to £40,000 per breach (raised from £30,000 in May 2026). When licensing lands, that certificate is one of the first things they'll ask to see, so it pays to have it ready either way. My inspection and testing page explains what an EICR actually covers.

Why I'd do it now, not when the letter arrives

The trap with licensing is everyone moves at once. The day a scheme is designated, every landlord in the borough starts phoning the same electricians, and the diary fills up fast.

The other catch is that an EICR isn't a rubber stamp... it can come back unsatisfactory, with C1 or C2 codes that have to be put right before it passes. I see a lot of that in Slough's older stock: Victorian terraces carved into flats, HMOs where the board's been added to piecemeal over the years, tired consumer units that were fine in 1995 and aren't now. If yours needs remedial work or a new fuse box, you want to find that out in a quiet month, not in a queue with a deadline over your head.

What I'd get straight now

Book the EICR, sort any remedial work it flags, and keep the certificate... plus your smoke and CO alarm records... somewhere you can lay hands on it. Then when the council letter does arrive, you produce it in a day and get on with your life, instead of joining the panic.

I'm a NAPIT-registered electrician based in Slough, and landlord EICRs and remedial work are bread-and-butter for me. If you want to get ahead of licensing, get in touch through my Slough electrician page for a free, no-obligation quote and I'll get your paperwork straight.