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A licensing scheme for landlords is being launched to "improve the image" of the private rented sector.

Landlords have 12 months to register on Rent Smart Wales and decide whether to apply for a licence or hand over management of their properties.

Communities Minister Lesley Griffiths said it would help tackle bad landlords who give the sector a bad name.

But the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) said it would "do little" to address criminal landlords.

Housing charity Shelter Cymru said nearly a third of its workload came from private tenancies.

A charity spokesman said: "Unprofessional conduct from both landlords and agents is a regular feature of our casework, sometimes because of a disregard for the law but more often because of basic ignorance about what their legal responsibilities actually are."

But the RLA said the scheme would be "an expensive, overburdening exercise in paperwork that will do little to target the criminal landlords who refuse to make themselves known".

Conservative shadow housing minister Mark Isherwood AM said: "Far from 'smart', this flawed scheme simply waves a stick at landlords and will needlessly penalise those who do a good job."