A simple scheme forced London Road’s dodgiest landlords to clean their act up. Why has it stopped?

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

So close: We’re now just 30 members short of hitting the big 2,000, which will be met with riotous celebrations in the streets. As we send this email, we have 1,970 paying members, and for each new one we get in the next few days, we will photoshop a photo of you referencing the style of the twentieth century year in question (your head on a 1979 binman for the winter of discontent etc). Or, if European data protection rules do not allow such a thing, we will just be very grateful for your support in helping us to reach the biggest milestone yet in our young life. We’re aiming to hit the big 2k by the end of the month, and we will be nervously refreshing our phones at midnight on Wednesday, so if you’re not a member yet, please join up now to get us over the line. 

A big job: You might not believe this but, if there’s one thing we love at The Tribune, it’s competition. Whether it’s the times The Star or the Yorkshire Post pip us to a big story, or the great work done by fellow independent Now Then, there’s no point in us aspiring to be the best unless other reporters are also stepping up to the plate. It’s why we’re hugely excited to hear that top podcast company Persephonica (the team behind audio hits like The News Agents and Political Currency) will soon be opening a new base in the city and are hiring for a producer to work on an exciting new entertainment and pop culture podcast.

They don’t need to worry too much about us though (yet); The Tribune remains a strictly text-based publication for now. In today’s briefing, a big chunk of that text will be devoted to the landlords of London Road, Abbeydale Road and Chesterfield Road and a five-year effort to bring them in line. It’s done amazing things for the residents of rented accommodation in this part of the city — so why has it stopped?

As well as that, we have a beautiful apartment in the building which kicked off Kelham Island’s recent renaissance, a talk at The Leadmill about the science of “microdosing”, and an important update on the tragic case of Maddy Cusack.

Catch up and coming up

How much do you really know about what goes on in “that prison school” — as some critics call it — in Nether Edge? Mercia School made headlines last year for warning potential job applicants that teaching there could “dominate your life on occasions” and its old-fashioned and hyper-strict approach, which includes detentions for infractions like dropping your pen, has made it a “Marmite” institution. Parents of its students, however, insist outsiders just don’t understand; its unusual ethos really works. Get stuck into the debate in our weekend story here.

Last week, we sent out two great members-only stories to the 1,970 people on our paid subscriber list. In the first, Dan mourned the retirement of a man who has fed Victoria more hot dinners than most of her ex-boyfriends: the former head chef of The Rutland Arms. (It’s obviously not just us who will miss him; this was our best-performing story of the week and fifteen people joined as members just to read it) For the second, we looked in-depth at the Stocksbridge Town Deal, amid allegations that the board set up to spend the £24 million they won from the government has not been “transparent, professional or objective”. An extract from that first piece is below.

From the street, The Rutland looks like a traditional boozer: red brick and yellow stonework frame an imposing entrance, while frosted window panes disguise the dimly lit bar within. But go inside and the hand-written chalkboard menu tells a different story. One of the specials: hoi-sin and pickled chilli lamb with curd cheese, smoked anchovy and a cow pea salad. The menu’s well-named “ballast” section includes more typical fayre, but even here the step up in quality is evident. As well as the legendary “Rutty Butty”, there’s a Marmite miso mushroom sandwich with lemon and sesame whipped tofu. Pub grub never looked this good before.

This week, if you sign up, you can expect to receive two more crackers. We’ll be covering some of Sheffield’s free-est spirits — and the eviction notices that are really spoiling their vibe — and another which we can’t tell you too much about just yet. To help fund a new way of doing journalism, please consider subscribing if you haven’t already. It costs just £1.34 a week or 23p a day if you pay for 12 months up front (£70).

The big picture: A river runs through it 💦

Thanks to David Poole from the brilliant Sheffielder blog for sharing this picture of the Porter Brook with us. The photo, which was taken from Mary Street, shows a newly opened up part of the river as well as, in the background, the distinctive shape of the Moorfoot building. To read our piece on Sheffield’s hidden rivers, click here. For more of David's photos, follow him on Instagram.

This week’s weather 🌥

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say a typical NW/SE split with early wet weather clearing to breezy and increasingly mild conditions with large cloud amounts and a few showers.

Monday 🌧 Looks like the worst and wettest day of the week, with outbreaks of rain throughout the day, heaviest over the hills. Lighter winds with highs of 9°C.

Tuesday 🌥 Any early damp weather clears to leave a cool and breezy day with bright spells. A chance of overnight frost too, with highs of 8°C and rural lows close to freezing.

Wednesday ☁️ Milder with more cloud on Wednesday. Best of any brightness early on, with a chance of light rain or drizzle later. Windy with highs of 10°C.

Thursday ☁️ Staying breezy and often cloudy with the risk of light rain over hills especially. Best of any brightness to the east, with a very mild 12°C the high.

Friday 🌥 Still very mild, still rather cloudy with a low risk of rain or drizzle. Not a lot of change then, with west-southwest winds remaining keen. Highs of 13°C.

Outlook: High pressure sticks to the south of the UK with those isobars still squeezed over the UK. Colder air may move southwards by Sunday as winds turn more to the northwest 🌬 Low risk of showers, otherwise turning brighter.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

The big story: What happened to selective licensing? 

Top line: For the five years leading up to last October, private landlords renting homes in London Road, Abbeydale Road and Chesterfield Road have had to be on their best behaviour. Thanks to a “selective licensing” scheme introduced by Sheffield City Council, properties in an area of the city that became well known for sub-par homes have been forced to improve. But, if it was so successful, why has it ended?

What is selective licensing? In most parts of the city, the only hurdles a landlord has to clear to start renting on the private market are drumming up the cash needed to buy a property and then finding someone who will pay to live in it. Amidst a nationwide housing crisis, even landlords offering dismal and unsafe homes aren’t exactly finding this hard. Many people are desperate enough to take whatever they can afford. 

The fix: What a selective licensing scheme like the one introduced in these neighbourhoods does is stop those unsafe homes from reaching (or staying) on the market. It forces landlords to apply for a licence, which costs between £750 and £1,000, before they can rent out properties. With this money, the council employs staff to inspect the buildings in question for any faults that could damage inhabitants’ health — or even endanger their lives — and forces the landlord to fix them.

How did it go? According to the council: really, really well. Of the 472 properties inspected as a result of the scheme, almost half had a significant hazard in need of a fix. Without the licensing scheme, it’s unlikely that many of these problems would have been uncovered.

• This includes 142 homes that didn’t have property fire safety measures, 43 with serious damp and mould issues, and 25 that were excessively cold. (If this last complaint sounds a little frivolous, think again. Studies show that living in an extremely cold home increases your risk of dying by a fifth.) 
• Inspections found a flat where the layout posed serious fire safety risks, a house without working central heating, and a house with a dangerous open staircase. 

Why has it stopped? Under the current national law, selective landlord licensing schemes can only be introduced by councils for a limited time and in areas where they can prove there are widespread problems with housing. According to Now Then, the government refused to let the council extend this scheme last year, “following a sustained lobbying campaign by groups representing the city's landlords”. 

The risks: While every landlord with this scheme has already fixed the problems the council found, there are risks involved with suspending it. For example, between 2014 and 2019, a similar scheme in Page Hall served to make properties in that area far safer for residents. By the time Dan visited last April, however, quite a few seemed to be in poor condition. Can landlords be trusted to stick to high standards without the threat of losing their income hanging over them?

Bottom line: The council’s private housing standards team will, of course, continue to enforce standards; it has a legal duty to do so. However, with 45,000 properties being privately rented across Sheffield and a standards team that has been cut to the bone, it’s understandably hard to keep tabs on every single one. In 2022, a council survey estimated that £1 billion was needed just to address the most dangerous hazards in the private rented sector. Until the government agrees to change the law around landlord licensing, its likely that scores of Sheffield tenants will continue to be let down.

The Weekly Whitworth ✍️

Our cartoonist James Whitworth with his own take on this week’s big story.

Our media picks 🔗

FA open investigation into circumstances around Maddy Cusack death ⚽ Late last week, the family of Sheffield United women’s team midfielder Maddy Cusack spied what could be a light at the end of the tunnel in their months-long campaign to hold someone accountable for her death. Their efforts began just a week after Cusack, 27, was found dead in her home last September, when they filed a formal complaint against the club, alleging she “would still be with us” had it not been for the conduct of  the team’s manager. The club agreed to an investigation that ultimately concluded there was no wrongdoing — but now the Football Association is preparing to offer a second opinion. The family have made it clear where they stand but, as our report from the sideline earlier this month proves, fans are split down the middle.

'Marriage is essentially meaningless if it is easy to get out of’ 🗳️ Say what you like about Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, but you could never accuse her of refusing to take a stance. At the very start of her most recent interview — in which she claims surrogacy should be outlawed and that introducing no-fault divorce was a “mistake” — the writer even notes how rare it is to “interview a politician so straightforward and candid”. To some, this comes across as a laudable refusal to be shamed out of her least popular views. In The Times, however, Tom Peck referenced one of her most recent pronouncements as a symptom of Parliament’s “soundbyte syndrome” and some politicians’ desire to be as provocative as possible to get attention. Is MP Cates a pioneer or a provocateur? Let us know what you think in the comments. 

Row over £21,000 revamp of bomber memorial in Endcliffe Park 🎖️ Tony Foulds, 87, made headlines and put Sheffield “on the world map” in 2019, when BBC presenter Dan Walker stumbled upon the amazing feel-good story of his decades-long devotion to maintaining the Mi Amigo war memorial. Now, however, he’s been left fuming by a £21,000 revamp of the memorial, the result of a wildly successful fundraiser by the Sheffield branch of the Royal Air Force Association, which has left him fearing his pride and joy is being slowly wrested out of his hands. The thing is, there appears to be reason to doubt whether Foulds has been as devoted to the memorial as Walker was led to believe. 

Home of the week 🏡

This gorgeous one bedroom flat in Kelham Island has loads of original features and a spacious mezzanine floor which can also double as another bedroom. It’s on the market for £260,000.

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first poll instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Talk 🍄 Some suggest microdosing (the practice of taking very low doses of psychedelics such as LSD or magic mushrooms) can work wonders most medication could only dream of — improving performance at work, stimulating creativity, and alleviating depression. The scientific community, however, is not wholly convinced. Is this just a placebo effect?  Find out more in this talk at The Leadmill on Tuesday. Tickets are priced £14.50 and doors open at 6.30pm.

Theatre 🎭 On Tuesday, a brand new production of one of the world’s most beloved musicals, The Wizard of Oz, begins at The Lyceum. Starring RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner The Vivienne as The Wicked Witch Of The West, the show features the iconic original score from the Oscar-winning MGM film, alongside new music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice. Tickets are priced from £15-£60 and the musical runs until Saturday, 3 February.

Music 🇮🇳 Also on Tuesday, head to the Crucible Playhouse to enjoy the fruits of thousands of years of Indian musical tradition. Jasdeep Singh Degun will play the sitar — a long stringed instrument that rose to popularity in mediaeval times — while Harkiret Singh Bahra will play the tabla, a pair of hand drums. During the two-hour show, these masters of their instruments will improvise intimate duets. Tickets are £5-£21 and the doors open at 7.15pm.