Peterborough runs two licensing schemes at once, which catches a lot of landlords out. The first is selective licensing, which started on 11 March 2024 and runs to 10 March 2029. Inside the covered areas almost every privately rented house needs a licence, not just shared houses. It costs £908, paid as £538 then £370, and it covers ten areas: Bretton, Central, East, Fletton and Stanground, Fletton and Woodston, North, Orton Waterville, Park, Paston and Walton, and Stanground South. The streets and the current fee are on Peterborough City Council’s selective licensing page. Check it to confirm your street is covered.
The second scheme is additional HMO licensing, which came in on 26 January 2026 and runs to 25 January 2031. It covers every house across the whole city let to three or four people who share a kitchen or bathroom, wherever it is, and it costs £1,100. Larger shared houses of five or more people still need a mandatory HMO licence on top. So a small shared house in a selective area can need one licence, and a small shared house anywhere else can need the other. Neither of them is a fire risk assessment, which is a separate legal duty and does not go away because you hold a licence.
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces fire safety law across Peterborough, separately from the council’s licensing team. They can turn up without an appointment, serve enforcement and prohibition notices, and prosecute. They will not write your assessment, though they will give advice. Their audit asks to see the written report and then checks that what it recommends is actually in place. The council licence and the fire service audit are two different visits with two different sets of paperwork.
Millfield and New England terraces and the Ortons
The licensed areas cover two very different kinds of housing. Around Central, North, Millfield, New England and Gladstone Street there are dense Victorian terraces, built for the railway workers who made the city grow, and much of it is now let room by room. In houses like these the assessment turns on the fire separation between rooms and floors and the escape past a single staircase, and older wiring is common. Out in the Ortons and around Stanground the stock is newer, a lot of it 1970s new town housing and low rise flats reached by a shared stair, where the question is the escape from that stair. A house let room by room is a very different job from a family let, and the smoke alarm a licence asks for is where the assessment starts, not where it finishes.
What a Peterborough report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any town is not suitable and sufficient for a railway terrace in Millfield let to four sharers. It should say where the alarms sit on each storey, whether the single staircase stays usable if a fire starts on the ground floor, and how the rooms are separated. For a converted house or a low rise block it should name the fire doors and the escape route, not leave the shared parts as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Peterborough
There is no official register of fire risk assessors, so the checking falls to whoever pays the invoice. Ask for qualifications, professional body membership, indemnity insurance and a sample report before you appoint, and ask how many houses like yours they have assessed in the city. The full list of questions is on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Peterborough
The building sets the price, not the postcode. A two up two down let in New England is a morning; a larger house split into several lettings with one staircase is not, and a block over 11 metres brings the fixed fire door checks with it. The national ranges, and what moves a quote inside them, are on what a fire risk assessment costs. Ask for a fixed price against a written description of the property.
Cambridge is the other Cambridgeshire city on this site, and it works differently: fire risk assessments in Cambridge.
Licensing in Peterborough
My rental is an ordinary house in a selective area. Do I need a licence?
Yes, if it is in one of the ten selective areas, whether it is shared or not. Check the council page to confirm your street is included.
My house is let to three sharers and it is outside the selective areas. Am I clear?
No. The additional HMO scheme covers three and four person shares across the whole city, so you are likely to need that licence instead. And the fire risk assessment applies either way.
Does either licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service will still expect the written assessment, and a licence condition about smoke alarms does not provide one.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Peterborough
Describe the premises and we will pass it to assessors covering Peterborough. Say whether it is a single house, a house split into lettings, or a five person HMO.
Not in Peterborough? See all the areas we cover.