The latest updates and insights from RIAMS Chief Editor Jeremy Manners.

Here’s a look at the latest additions and updates on RIAMS Libraries and Communities. From new documents and e-learning courses to practical checklists and engaging forum discussions, these resources are designed to keep environmental health and housing professionals informed and supported. Read on for a full overview of what’s new and available.

What’s new on RIAMS Libraries?

• During August, we reviewed 90 documents for England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and added 6 new documents to Libraries. We’ve also published the following e-learning and new documents for our RIAMS Libraries subscribers:  

• Becoming a Confident RIAMS Administrator (e-learning): This course guides you through the RIAMS system. Learn to navigate the platform, manage users, customise settings and master content creation and organisation.  

• Pavement Licensing under the Business and Planning Act 2020 (e-learning): This course provides an in-depth understanding of pavement licensing in England, including the application process, enforcement and appeals.  

• Navigating Awaab's Law: Guidance for Social Landlords (e-learning): Understanding Awaab’s Law is crucial for all social landlords in England. This e-learning assists practitioners working in social housing in understanding their responsibilities.   

• Guidance Note: Awaab’s Law (HP256E): This guidance focuses on Awaab’s Law and its impact on the social rented and private rented sectors in England.   

• Stating the Proposed Rent and Rental Bidding (HP257E): This procedure describes the provisions with regard to landlords having to state the proposed rent in advance, the aim being to abolish rental bidding. It focuses on financial penalties for breaching the prohibition on rental bidding, failing to publish an asking rent, or soliciting or accepting an offer exceeding the published amount.  

• Right to Request Permission to Keep a Pet (HP258E): This guidance note outlines how existing tenants will have an implied right to request to keep pets, which landlords cannot unreasonably refuse.   

• Our friends at DASH Services have published an editable checklist for local authorities to provide to their landlords, which is now available on RIAMS: The Renters’ Rights Bill – Staying Compliant: A Practical Checklist for Landlords. You can subscribe to the DASH Newsletter by contacting Linda Cobb to receive their future updates.  

• Last but not least, Operation Jigsaw has also published the following resources, which are also easily accessible on RIAMS: Preparation Checklist for the Renters’ Rights Bill and Renters’ Rights Bill Leadership Focus – Briefing (Summer 2025).  

If your organisation doesn’t yet subscribe to RIAMS Libraries, contact RHE Global to request a free demonstration and trial.  

What’s new on RIAMS Communities? 

Our environmental health forums continue to thrive across all areas of environmental health, with lively conversation and debate. Join the discussion and network with colleagues here.  

Our Question of the Month for August, ably resolved by Dr Tim Everett, is Entrapment or Enforcement – Can councils lawfully pose as prospective tenants online to investigate unlicensed HMOs, and what legal risks does this involve? This one, although with a housing theme, is relevant to all areas of environmental health and local authority enforcement. If you have a legal or enforcement question that’s really bugging you, please send it to me at [email protected], and Tim will select a question each month to answer on RIAMS.  

Thank you to Jamie McGowan, Tribunal Advocate for Justice for Tenants, for sharing his blog on a really interesting First-tier Tribunal case (Onuoha v Ojukwu), which had been back and forth to the Upper Tribunal. The case centred on whether a landlord had a reasonable excuse defence due to some alleged errors on a council’s website. Read the blog here.