The Department for Communities and Local Government are under pressure from landlord groups to clarify their announcement that the HMO licensing scheme is to be extended. Currently, an HMO is required for a property of three or more storeys lived in by five individuals making up two or more households. However, the new proposals could affect landlords of much smaller properties. These could include lowering the three storey rule down to one, and removing the “more than one household” test. If large numbers of properties have to be licensed, this does raise the issue of how local councils would deal with enforcement given how under-resourced many of them area.