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Government twists knife into shared houses

The government has ignored opposition from landlords and students and gone ahead with plans to crack down on homes share by three or more adults.

Under the plans announced this afternoon, landlords will have to obtain planning permission giving councils the right to say no. More worryingly, it will further clog up the planning system further, jeopardizing councils’ abilities to process applications.

Speaking from the British Property Federation (BPF) annual housing conference, chief executive Liz Peace said: “At precisely the time where the government should be doing all it can to support housing and support students, it’s twisting the knife in the recovery of the housing market. This won’t just affect students however, it will hit key workers and other young or low paid people who benefit from being able to cheaply rent a shared home’

The Department for Communities and Local Government issued a press release on the issue.

HMOs play a vital role in providing much needed housing for students, young professionals and those on low incomes who rely on this type of affordable accommodation. Large cities across the UK greatly depend on shared housing as a first step. By making it more difficult and costly for landlords to provide this type of accommodation, these measures will reduce choice for tenants and increase pressure on local authority housing lists.

The plans have been universally derided as a ‘nimby’s charter’ and opposed by all landlords groups, the National Union of Students and the Conservatives. But even the government’s own review – carried out by Sheffield University academic Julie Rugg, condemned the plans as an ‘extreme response’ which ‘local authorities are ill-equipped to handle’.

Today’s proposals will also allow council to designate ‘hot spots’ where landlords will not be able to rent out shared homes. This will be able to be done without central government permission, fuelling concerns from all sides.

Ministers want to clampdown on houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) - homes rented by six or more unrelated people - as a part of a knee-jerk reaction to so-called "studentification".

Problems with anti-social behaviour have arisen around high concentrations of HMOs, drawing complaints from locals about litter, noise and towns becoming empty during holidays.

John Healey, the housing minister, today confirmed he would be pressing ahead with measures that could allow councils to clear students out of residential areas. But immigrants, young professionals and others who rent HMOs will also be affected.

Property experts say that using planning laws to restrict HMOs will raise rents and drive out the students, young professionals and immigrants who rent them because they are affordable.

Local businesses, particularly those which rely on student custom, also face being hit if students are driven out.

The move is also a wholesale contradiction of social integration policies, which the Government has promoted to ensure that "sink estates" are not recreated.

The NUS has joined forces with property groups in condemning the plans as a "Nimby’s Charter" which would create student ghettos and dictate where people live based on their income.

The British Property Federation (BPF), National Landlords Association, Residential Landlords Association, and NUS led a very pubic campaign last year, saying the proposals would not help and that similar moves failed in Northern Ireland.

The property industry wants a local management option to tackle the problems without further legislation. This could take into account local circumstances and offer a cost-effective solution to the problem.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF said: "You can’t use the planning system for social engineering or to tackle anti-social behaviour. Only a tiny fraction of places suffer from a high concentrations of HMOs and using a broad brush approach to deal with different issues relating to anti-social behaviour makes no sense. It’s vital that the property market is left flexible and we hope ministers will head our warnings and reconsider going down the legislative route."

For more information and all PR and media queries, please contact Andrew Teacher, Head of Media, on 020 7802 0113 / ateacher@bpf.org.uk