What we do

Houses of multiple occupation (HMOs)

The Government has laid new regulations to come into effect on 6 April 2010 which will require a house that becomes shared by three or more unrelated people to get planning permission.

The order is being driven through by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP, because of ‘studentification’ in his constituency. This is despite the fact that a Government commissioned review of the private rented sector rejected the need for such intervention; the Rugg Review found that just 59 council wards (0.7%) out of 8,000 had more than 10% of houses run by students.

In a recent consultation exercise by the Government, the proposal was rejected, alongside us, by the:
• Local Government Association (LGA);
• Local Authority Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS);
• National Union of Students (NUS);
• Residential Landlords Association (RLA);
• National Landlords Association (NLA).

We also believe the secretary of state’s officials advised against the policy.

Informal consultation on HMOs

As residential members will know, the BPF has led the fight over the last two years to prevent the Government imposing planning restrictions on HMOs. We were outraged that this was pushed through by the previous Government just before the election, but delighted that the current Housing Minister, Grant Shapps MP, has agreed to at least partially roll back those very draconian regulations.