Housing charity Shelter has revealed the extent to which ‘rogue landlords’ are operating in England.

The housing and homelessness charity contacted every local authority in England to build a picture of both the scale of the problem with rogue landlords and what is being done to tackle it.

Local authorities admit there are 1,477 known landlords who are giving local authorities continued cause for concern and repeatedly making tenants’ lives a misery. Of particular worry, the responses show that complaints about serious and potentially life-threatening hazards, including dangerous gas and electrics, have risen by 25% over the past two years.

Overall complaints about landlords have increased, taking them to a 86,628 in the last year. Yet despite the sharp increase in problems, just 270 successful prosecutions have been made by local authorities against landlords during the same period.

Shelter is warning that unless councils urgently crack down on this small but highly dangerous minority, more tenants will be at risk.

Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “The reality is that rogue landlords are out there and they’re getting away with it.