The PRS database in the East of England: dates, deadline and licensing

Landlords in the East of England must register each rented property between 15 January 2027 and 14 April 2027. The deadline depends on where the property is, not where the landlord or agent is based. A portfolio that spans more than one region has more than one deadline, set out in the national rollout table.

The window is 90 days and contains 62 working days once Good Friday and Easter Monday are taken out. The deadline falls on a Wednesday, a working day, so there is no weekend slack: Wednesday 14 April 2027 is the last working day for anything that needs a colleague, a landlord’s reply or a council’s answer.

The date to register by is the end of the three-month window the government publishes on the Housing Hub, after which councils in the region can begin enforcement. The draft Regulations fix when each region opens, not a date to register by. The dates were announced by the government (GOV.UK, 9 September 2026). The East of England follows the West Midlands, which opens 15 December 2026, so agents with managed stock in both regions will have two windows that overlap.

Six of the East of England’s 45 local authorities run selective or additional licensing on Kamma’s data at 6 October 2026: Bedford, Great Yarmouth, Luton, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. Between them they hold 9 live schemes. The other 39 councils require a licence only for mandatory HMOs, which applies in every council. That includes the large letting markets of Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Watford and Stevenage.

Selective licensing covers most privately rented homes in a designated area. Additional licensing covers smaller HMOs that the national mandatory rule leaves out. Both matter for the database, because each registration records the property’s licence type and number (what that means for enforcement). Coverage below is as recorded in our data; check the council’s own map before relying on a specific street.

Southend-on-Sea City Council’s selective licensing covers some neighbourhoods in the Milton, Kursaal, Victoria and Chalkwell wards. It came into force on 1 December 2021. The council’s public notice says the designation “shall cease to have effect on 30th November 2026”, or earlier if the council revokes it under section 84 of the Act (council public notice). Registration opens 46 days after the last day in force.

Read on the dates alone, no Southend-on-Sea property will sit inside this selective scheme when registration opens, unless the council designates another. That is our reading of the dates, and it is not a council statement.

The council has said it is looking at what comes next. Its consultation page, now marked as concluded, says the council is reviewing the selective scheme’s impact and “exploring whether Additional Licensing for HMOs could improve housing conditions further” (council consultation page). Our data holds no new Southend-on-Sea designation, and the council page gives no decision date, so we cannot say whether a replacement scheme, an additional scheme or nothing will follow.

For an agent, the practical point is the licence record. Each registration asks for licence type and number, and licences issued under this designation relate to a scheme that will have ended. Ask the council what applies to each affected property from 1 December 2026, and keep its answer.

Councils will administer the national database locally, and a few in this region have already told landlords it is coming. None of the three below runs selective or additional licensing on our data, so for them the register would be the first property-level record landlords give the council. That is our inference, and the councils do not say it.

Chelmsford City Council’s page on the Renters’ Rights Act says that in late 2026 “landlords will have to register their properties on a national Private Rented Sector database”, which it says aims “to improve transparency and enforcement in the rental market” (Chelmsford City Council). The council’s “late 2026” does not match this region’s opening date of 15 January 2027. The page is undated, and the regional schedule was announced later, so we take the council’s wording to be general. Use the government’s dates.

Colchester City Council’s news release on the Act says its Private Sector Housing Team is “urging landlords to engage early with the changes and seek support where needed” (Colchester City Council). The release is from 2025 and lists the database among the reforms without dates.

Norwich City Council’s registration page says: “Phase 2 of the Renters’ Rights Act rollout includes a Private Rented Sector Database”, and that “Further advice and guidance will be published in due course” (Norwich City Council). Our data records a 2021 Norwich consultation on additional licensing and no scheme since.