SWEEPING changes to force all landlords to get licences for their properties could be proposed in Oxford this summer.

The new rules would effectively expand a scheme that currently applies just to homes in multiple occupation (HMOs), requiring properties to meet safety standards and be in good repair.

Landlords say it will add to bureaucracy and push up rents but Oxford City Council insists it is needed to improve standards.

Alex Hollingsworth, the authority's planning boss, said proposals were likely to come forward in the coming months but this depended on whether they were supported by the Government.

It could affect an estimated 15,000 rented properties in the city, of which 5,000 are already covered by the HMO licensing scheme.

Mr Hollingsworth said: "Our objective was, and remains, to progress a selective licensing scheme to improve standards in the private rent sector and we are currently looking at the detail of how that could work."

The council first proposed the 'selective licensing scheme' last June but has since provided few details.

To bring forward the changes, it would need to meet certain conditions and could only apply it at first to 20 per cent of the city or private rent sector.

Draft documents originally suggested the changes could be introduced by January this year but more recent information published says a 10-week consultation on the policy now won't begin until this summer.

Mr Hollingsworth said the delay was partly due to a ministerial shake-up last year when Theresa May became Prime Minister, which has raised doubts about support from Whitehall.

He added: "There has been evolving guidance on how these schemes need to be configured."

Any licensing scheme would be in addition to tough new powers the authority has already been given, which allow it to impose £30,000 fines on rogue landlords without a court hearing.

Housing officers claimed it would bring an end to 'the era of the rogue landlord' but Mr Hollingsworth said he still believed a licensing scheme was also necessary.

It prompted concerns from one of the city's biggest landlords, who warned council bosses they were 'using a sledgehammer to crack a nut'.

Robin Swailes, managing director of North Oxford Property Services, told the Oxford Mail: "In my experience, the general standard of properties in Oxford is already higher than most other cities.

"There is a small minority of people who do not adhere to the system but those offences come under existing legislation.

"This could bring in a lot more bureaucracy and that means extra costs, which will most likely be passed to tenants.

"It seems disproportionate, given the small number of people who flout the rules."

Last year the National Landlords' Association said the proposal amounted to 'nothing more than a tax on those who live in the private rented sector'.