In another ironic twist of fate, I see that yet another council is coming down hard on the evils of HMO’s and kicking up a fuss due to self-interest and lack of understanding about the benefits of HMO’s.
This time its Chester Council who have decided to refuse change of use status to two HMO’s which together would house 5 and 10 students. One of the HMO’s was already functioning as a HMO and if this has had gone through a few years ago, it would have sailed through with no issues.
Today though – its a different matter.
No longer content with refusing permission for home-owners to modify their houses or developers to bring new accomodation into the area, they are now jumping on the bandwagon of the recent Communities and Government report on Houses of Multiple Occupation (see my blog post on this whole issue) and the planning rules around them.
Some of the comments that were passed by councillors who probably don’t own any rental property and do not truly understand the housing stock and impact upon the wider market included the following:
- The number of students made for a “very unbalanced community and a breakdown of community life”
- The application did not include any off-street parking and parking and traffic could be an issue
- “HMOs should not be allowed if family dwellings are lost”
- “We do not want the character of the area to be affected”
- “There are concerns the whole area could be on a downward spiral”
The comments are banal, unjustified and show a complete lack of understanding of the current societal needs for housing.
When we consider that in the original application, the planning team recommended it be passed for a number of good reasons, its interesting that the development control manager decided to refuse them based on a change in policy. In the original proposal, the planners had decided to pass the applications based on:
- the neighbours had not objected;
- there were already student properties in the same street and surrounding areas;
- there was a need for student accomodation in the area;
- independent inspectors did not believe they would cause any unacceptable harm to the character of the locality, the amenity of neighbours or highway safety.
The time is coming when both central and local government need to understand and reflect upon the housing needs of today and move towards embracing these through a positive approach of consultation, regulation and policy.
- we do not have enough housing stock to meet demand
- its unlikely that 5 and 10 bedroom houses are going to be occupied by families in todays shrinking family circles
- students bring revenue and custom into the areas that they live in
- if families wanted to buy these houses, they would have done – of the two houses that were refused change of use, one had been a HMO for years – the other had been completely refurbished – a project 99% of families would run from quickly
- its highly unlikely that more than 50% of HMO tenants will have a car – and students even less likely
- community life is already dead in most towns and cities – if councillors and the government face up to this fact rather than using it as an excuse to deny landlords from providing highly demanded accomodation, then we can all move along and start thinking about how to re-ignite community from within, rather than from the sidelines
To read more of the original article, just click here