More than 1,200 complaints have been made about landlords in Shropshire in the past two years, new figures have revealed.

Research from homeless charity Shelter found that Shropshire Council had received a total of 1,279 complaints between 2009/10 and 2010/11. No figures were available about the number of complaints made to Telford & Wrekin Council in the same timeframe.

In the wider West Midlands area, there were 5,772 complaints in the last year. The charity has urged councils to crackdown on rogue operators.

But Shropshire Council said a proportion of the complaints were resolved by working with landlords. And it said that not all landlords it received complaints about were ‘rogue’.

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

“Every day at Shelter we see the devastating impact rogue landlords have on peoples’ lives as they remain trapped in homes that cause misery and, in some cases, put lives at risk. What’s more we believe there could be thousands more tenants across the West Midlands who are suffering in silence, holding back from complaining out of fear of the consequences or because they don’t feel their voices will be heard.

“Local authorities have the powers to tackle rogue landlords but too many aren’t making the most of their armoury.

“They must follow the lead of those councils taking a zero tolerance approach to rogue landlords, and support tenants who are suffering by cracking down on the worst offenders in their area.”

Graham Jones, private sector housing manager at Shropshire Council, said: “Shropshire Council work with and encourage local letting agents and landlords to ensure all their properties are of a good standard and that tenants are being treated fairly.

“We respond to instances where we are required to work with landlords which includes dealing appropriately with complaints from tenants. These may involve our officers from private sector housing, housing options, environmental health or trading standards.

“An example of our involvement may be where a tenant is concerned that a leaky roof has not been repaired despite contacting the landlord. In this case we would work with the landlord to resolve the issue and it would be inappropriate to label all such landlords as ‘rogue’ on that basis.”