Enfield Borough Council will appeal against a High Court ruling against its landlord licensing scheme.

The High Court today ruled that the judicial review called for by landlord Constantinos Regas challenging Enfield Borough Council's licensing scheme was to be upheld.

Council cabinet member for housing, Councillor Ahmet Oykener said the decision was “surprising” and that the council would be appealing against the verdict.

The council's scheme, due to start in April 2015, would have required landlords to hold a £500 five-year licence from the authority for each property they owned.

Non-registration would carry a potential £20,000 fine and a criminal record, with any breach of licence conditions carrying a £5,000 fine.

Cllr Oykener said: “We disagree with the rulings made in this disappointing judgement.

“It finds technical flaws with the consultation process which informed the scheme - which do not tally with the facts.

“The judge has ruled that the consultation mainly focused on gathering the views of local Enfield people rather than people living in neighbouring boroughs. While we make no apologies for putting the views of the people we represent at the heart of our consultation activity, we find this ruling surprising as we extended the consultation outside the boundaries of the borough.

“He has also ruled that we did not formally consult over a 10 week period. We actually ran the consultation over a 12 week period – two weeks longer that than recommended.

“The extent and the length of the consultation activity we undertook was informed by expert, external legal opinion.”

Mr Regas has now called for the cabinet member to resign after claiming the scheme “defiled democracy” and the council has “disgraced themselves.”

Cllr Oykener added: “Furthermore, the judgement does not find fault with the licensing scheme or challenge the evidence-based report upon which the decision to implement this scheme was taken - which Justice Ouseley has previously described as “detailed and careful".

“We are therefore, requesting leave to appeal against the decision.

“Despite the technical points raised by the judge the court recognised that 84 per cent of Enfield’s residents and a majority of Enfield’s businesses who responded to the consultation strongly agreed with the decision to introduce the scheme. We will continue to stand-up for the views and interests of Enfield’s residents and remain committed to introducing a scheme that many residents are waiting to be implemented."

Richard Lambert, chief executive officer at the National Landlords Association (NLA), said: “This decision exposes Enfield Council’s blasé approach to introducing licensing and their consultation process with landlords, tenants and the community. It asks serious questions about the motivation behind what seems to be a blatant attempt to introduce the at all costs.”

“This is a clear example of an abuse of power and it strengthens the NLA’s calls for government to remove general approval for local councils to introduce such borough-wide schemes.

“We fear that the council is now likely go back to the drawing board and consult again on the scheme."