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Annual Reports
The National HMO Lobby began as an informal network in 2000. In
November 2004, the Lobby was formally constituted. Since then, the
Co-ordinator has reported annually on the Lobby's activities.
First Annual Report 2005
Second Annual Report 2006
Third Annual Report 2007
Fourth Annual Report 2008
Fifth Annual Report 2009
Sixth Annual Report 2010
Seventh Annual Report 2011
First Report 2005
The National HMO Lobby is an association of some three-dozen community
groups in two-dozen towns in all parts of the UK, who are concerned
to ameliorate the impact of concentrations of houses in multiple
occupation (HMOs) on their communities. The Lobby offers its members
solidarity in adversity, exchange of information and collective
campaigning.
The Lobby began as an informal network in 2000, when Leeds and
Birmingham made contact. They were soon joined by groups in Hull,
Loughborough, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. In the next
three years, the network was joined by more groups, in Belfast,
Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Lincoln, Manchester, Nottingham, Plymouth,
St Anne’s, Sheffield, Southampton and York. Solidarity was
forged by visits between Leeds, Birmingham and Nottingham. And emails
flew to and fro, exchanging information.
More groups joined in 2004, including Bath, Bristol, Durham, Liverpool,
Portstewart and St Andrew’s, and more visits (Liverpool to
Leeds) and emails were exchanged. In this year, collective campaigning
(as opposed to individual efforts) began in earnest. Our two main
projects were a meeting with
the Minister for Housing, Planning & Regeneration (arranged
by Nottingham) and continuous lobbying as the Housing
Bill passed through Parliament. We also contributed to the revision
of the Use Classes Order in Northern
Ireland.
In November 2004, the National HMO Lobby was formally constituted,
with 28 groups in 22 towns. We launched a website, and recruited
more members, in Bristol, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Hatfield, Leicester,
London, Southampton and Swansea. The Lobby has submitted representations
to formal consultations on the Implementation
of HMO Licensing, Householder
Consents and Affordability & the Supply of Housing,
as well as the Belfast Metropolitan
Area Plan. We have adopted briefings on ‘What
is an HMO?’ and ‘Studentification’.
Canterbury has launched a national petition on HMOs
& Council Tax. And eleven towns submitted evidence to Universities
UK’s research into Students
& Communities.
Our membership now comprises 38 groups (several of which are themselves
in turn federations of local groups) in 26 towns. In the coming
year, we can look forward to the parliamentary launch of the Students
& Communities report (December) and a conference (January),
to the postponed introduction of mandatory HMO licensing (April),
and to a follow-up to last year’s conference on Students,
Housing & Communities (in Nottingham, on 12 May).
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2005
^ Top
Second Report
2006
The National HMO Lobby is now an association of some forty-five
community groups in thirty towns in all parts of the UK, who are
concerned to ameliorate the impact of concentrations of houses in
multiple occupation (HMOs) on their communities. The Lobby offers
its members solidarity in adversity, exchange of information and
collective campaigning.
The year since the last Report has been dominated by three themes,
legislation, publications and meetings. In England & Wales,
the provisions for the licensing of
HMOs in the Housing Act 2004 have been implemented: in February,
the relevant Statutory Instruments were published; and Part Two
of the Act came into effect in April. Landlords were given three
months grace to submit applications for licences. Nevertheless,
by July, throughout the country, only a minority of landlords of
licensable HMOs (3+ storeys and 5+ occupants) had applied. With
this eventuality in mind, the Lobby published a Notification
Form to report wayward landlords to the local authority [copies
are available from the Co-ordinator]. Meanwhile, in Scotland, HMO
licensing was embedded in primary legislation, when the Housing
(Scotland) Act was passed in January by the Scottish Parliament.
Its provisions will come into effect next year.
The most significant publication on HMOs to date was Universities
UK’s Studentification:
a guide to opportunities, challenges and practice, commissioned
by the government and written by Darren Smith, which appeared in
January. The Guide was the subject of a launch conference in London
on 25 January, and of a Breakfast Seminar at the House of Commons
on 27 June. On both occasions, the Lobby issued press releases,
acknowledging the value of the Guide, but also identifying serious
shortcomings. Both events received significant press attention (Mail,
Guardian, THES), the latter in particular giving
rise to correspondence in THES. Also in the media, HMO
issues appeared in the press (Observer, Telegraph,
Axis, Planning, Inside Housing [twice])
and on television & radio (BBC1 [twice], Radio 2, Radio 4).
And letters by the Lobby and its members
were published, not only in THES, but also in the Guardian
and the Times, and even Country Life. Two further
publications were valuable to our campaigning, DCLG’s Dealing
with ‘Problem’ Private Rented Housing in July
and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s The
Modern Private Rented Sector in October.
The major meeting of the year was the Unipol Conference Students
& Communities Revisited on 12 May in Nottingham, attended
by representatives of a dozen of our members, where community concerns
were pre-eminent. The National HMO Lobby was also represented at
the two events promoting UUK’s Studentification (at
the Commons event, by the Nottingham Action Group). The Lobby also
attended three local conferences – in Belfast on 24 November,
in Canterbury on 10 February and in Durham on 21 April. Finally,
at the end of October, the Lobby gave evidence on behalf of Heslington
Village at the University of York Public Inquiry.
Meanwhile, whilst its members worked locally, the Lobby continued
to lobby nationally. In February, it made a representation
on studentification to the Minister for Higher Education, and in
the autumn, it responded to two consultations, the DCLG’s
From Decent Homes to
Sustainable Communities, and the Commons Select Committee’s
Supply of Rented Housing.
In September, the Lobby’s view
of HMO licensing was aired in the professional journal, Inside
Housing. Most of these responses drew attention to the need
to amend the Use Classes Order.
During the year, the target changed: in May, the ODPM was restructured
as the Department for Communities & Local Government, and Ruth
Kelly was appointed Minister. And our representatives in national
and local government woke up to the value of concerted action –
in April, members lobbied their MPs to set up a Parliamentary HMO
Lobby (as yet unrealised), and in October, they lobbied their councillors
to support Cllr Dave Trimble’s initiative to do the same for
local councillors.
In support of its campaigns, the Lobby issued a number of Briefing
Bulletins and Discussion Documents. Local
HMO Plans (November), the Ten
Point Plan (an action strategy, June) and Students
in the Private Rented Sector (October) brought together
useful information. And Accounting
for Sustainability and Keeping
the Peace (on the real cost of universities, and on student
discipline, respectively, both in January) and Balanced
Communities (April) raised issues for debate.
The Lobby continued to grow, and new members joined in Newcastle,
Poole, Blackpool, Bangor, Manchester and York. We now number 46
groups (several of which are themselves federations of local groups)
in 31 towns.
For the future, the key issue of planning control of HMOs still
needs to be addressed in most of the UK (only Northern Ireland as
yet has a Use Classes Order adequate to the task). Apart from continued
needling, it’s difficult to see what more the Lobby can do
on this issue. Our best hope perhaps lies with the projected national
networks of MPs and councillors. Of course, to be effective, national
legislation will have to be implemented by local planning policies.
There has been progress with HMO licensing, and regimes are now
in place throughout the UK. They are not an answer to the problem
of concentrations, but they are an invaluable resource. In England,
the next step is to extend mandatory licensing (which applies only
to larger HMOs) into comprehensive licensing in designated areas.
This means the local introduction of additional HMO licensing.
The local level therefore remains as important as the national.
Local groups will need to campaign for additional HMO licensing
(Southampton is committed to its introduction), and where they are
not yet in place, for local HMO plans (our Briefing Bulletin provides
examples of progress to date). What’s really needed to address
the problem of HMO concentrations in general, and studentification
in particular, are local overall strategies. These are developing
in the Action Plans in Leeds and Nottingham (and also hopefully,
Canterbury). The Lobby’s Ten
Point Plan (which emerged from the Unipol Conference, in response
to UUK’s Studentification) offers a model of some
of the 57 varieties if action that can be taken.
Further details can be found on the ‘History’
and the ‘National Developments’
pages of the website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2006
^ Top
Third
Report 2007
The National HMO Lobby began informally in 2000,
and was formally constituted in 2004. The Lobby is now an association
of over fifty community groups in over thirty towns in all parts
of the UK. Its aim is to redress the
impact of concentrations of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
on the cohesion and sustainability of local communities. The Lobby
offers its members solidarity in adversity, exchange of information
and collective campaigning.
In the past year, the Lobby has taken action on a number of fronts.
Perhaps most importantly, it has kept the issue of HMOs high on
the national agenda, at national conferences and their associated
media coverage. These began with the meeting in Nottingham in February,
held jointly by the Lobby and the new network of councillors, which
was widely reported on national radio and in the national press.
Other conferences followed, especially with attention to studentification
– at NUS in London in March,
at ASRA in Swansea in April, at
UEA in Norwich in June and at UUK
in London in October, all with the Lobby’s participation.
Studentification in Swansea attracted media attention in May (Guardian,
Radio 5). But as the Lobby continuously points out, it is HMOs which
are the real problem, and this was underlined by two conferences
by the BURA Seaside Network, in Scarborough
(March) and in Rhyl (September), as well as the Balanced Communities
Conference in Manchester (also September), all attended by the Lobby.
Meanwhile in June, the Guardian ran a series of articles
on buy-to-let, including HMOs (and including a feature on Nottingham).
Finally, the One Show on BBC1 on 15 November focussed on
HMO problems in Leeds, Sheffield and Treforest.
At the same time, the HMO issue has been directly impressed on
the government. The Commons Committee on Communities & Local
Government published a report on Coastal Towns (calling
for action on HMOs) and the Department itself (DCLG) published a
report on The Impact of HMO Licensing (which catalogued
the effects of HMOs).
Our lobbying of MPs last year at last bore fruit – the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainable & Balanced Communities
was formally registered in March, its members mounted a campaign
in Parliament in May and June (an Early Day Motion, a Ten Minute
Rule Bill, and two Adjournment Debates), and the Lobby attended
the first formal meeting of the Group in June.
Also arising from our lobbying, the meeting of councillors in February
resulted in the formation of the Councillors Campaign for Balanced
Communities. Hitherto, this has remained a mailing list. However,
local authorities themselves have been active - Bath, Southampton,
Newcastle, Bristol, Canterbury, Swansea, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield
have all adopted motions on HMOs. Also, HMO issues have been considered
by the planning officers of the eight Core Cities. And Loughborough
and Nottingham both sent delegations to the government. All of these
initiatives called for amendment to the Use Classes Order.
Our liaison with HE has continued, though on the whole to little
avail. NUS held a meeting in March, which was a prelude to the publication
in June of Students in
the Community. This could have been a productive move forward,
but instead it exacerbated relations, libelling the Lobby and revealing
NUS still to be in denial over studentification. Universities UK
held a conference in October, to which the Nottingham Action Group
contributed. Though the topic was ‘new directions’,
none were forthcoming. But the Lobby took the opportunity to address
an Open Letter to Our Universities (which awaits a response).
Nevertheless, universities in Leeds, Loughborough and Nottingham
have supported amendment of the Use Classes Order.
Meanwhile, the Lobby lobbied government directly. In March, Leeds,
Loughborough and Nottingham simultaneously made representations
to the Minister for Local Government & Community Cohesion. (But
the ministerial team was reshuffled in June.) And then in October,
the Lobby formally submitted a representation to the consultation
on the Housing Green Paper.
All our members of course do as much as they can, but the impact
of the Storer Area Residents Group (SARG) in Loughborough is worthy
of note – the Vice-Chancellor of the University addressed
the Parliamentary University Group very positively last November,
the local MP has been very vocal in the Commons, and Charnwood Borough
Council sent a delegation to the Minister in May.
Nationally, the Lobby has continued to grow, with new members in
Egham, Falmouth, Leicester, Pontypridd and Southampton. Nottingham
has launched an impressive website. We are also acquiring an international
dimension. In April, our ally Dr Darren Smith (Brighton University)
organised a session on studentification at the Association of American
Geographers Conference in San Francisco. And this November, Rob
Payne in Ontario set up a new international website www.towngownworld.com,
bringing together activists in Canada, the UK and the USA.
Encouragingly, the year’s activity is bearing fruit. Northern
Ireland’s Use Classes Order has already been amended. Now
DCLG has agreed to consult on the Order in England & Wales.
“We fully recognise the difficulties that can arise with large
concentrations of dwellings with group occupation and recognise
that there may be a case for amending the Town and Country Planning
(Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended). We therefore propose to consult
next year on proposals to amend the Use Classes Order in relation
to HMOs.” (Hopefully, this will also encourage the Scottish
Executive.)
Nationally, legislation is essential. But to be effective, it must
be accompanied by local policies. These are under way throughout
the UK (see our Briefing Bulletin on ‘Local
HMO Plans’). But another DCLG initiative should encourage
them further. “We therefore propose to establish a Taskforce
with interested local authorities and universities to explore how
measures might be brought to bear ... [including] activities such
as neighbourhood management schemes, landlord accreditation and
additional licensing for HMOs. We will ask the Taskforce to present
their recommendations to Government in spring 2008 ... the community
is a very important stakeholder and ... community groups should
be represented by the National HMO Lobby on the Taskforce we are
establishing. We are also looking into the feasibility of holding
a conference early in the New Year to kick start the work of the
Taskforce."
A huge amount of damage has been done by HMOs, of course. But there
are reasons to look forward to some counter measures in the next
year.
Further details can be found on the ‘History’
and the ‘National Developments’
pages, on the Lobby’s website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2007
^Top
Fourth
Report 2008
The National HMO Lobby began informally in 2000,
and was formally constituted in 2004. The Lobby is now an association
of over fifty community groups in over thirty towns in all parts
of the UK. Its aim is to redress the impact of concentrations of
houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) on the cohesion and sustainability
of local communities. The Lobby offers its members solidarity in
adversity, exchange of information and collective campaigning.
In the last year, up to November 2008, the Lobby has continued
to grow. We have lost half-a-dozen members - one disbanded (in Edinburgh),
others have dropped out of contact (in Durham, Hatfield and York).
On the other hand, we have welcomed a dozen new members, in Blackpool
(Palatine Road Committee and King Edward Avenue West Committee Action
Group), in Bournemouth (Winton Community Forum), in Brighton (Elm
Grove Area Residents Action Group), in Edinburgh (Proprietors of
Monkwood Court), in Manchester (Withington Civic Society), in Oxford
(Divinity Road Area Residents Association and Stockmore Street Residents
Association), in Salford (Gerald Road East Action Team [GREAT] and
Albion Residents Group), and in Swansea (Swansea Sustainable Community
Initiative). We now currently number fifty-eight organisations in
thirty-six towns.
In the interests of solidarity, we again joined
forces with the Councillors Campaign for Balanced Communities for
a national conference in Nottingham on 13 March, hosted by the Nottingham
Action Group (NAG), organised by Unipol. Much of the day comprised
joint meetings, with a presentation by Roberta Blackman-Woods MP,
Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Sustainable &
Balanced Communities; but the two organisations also held independent
meetings, to look at local good practice. It was good to meet Lobby
members from Canterbury, Leeds, Leicester, Loughborough, Manchester,
Nottingham, Southampton and Swansea.
Through our email list, we have circulated information
throughout the year. We took the opportunity of the conference to
bring together several campaigning documents, and to launch them
in a single glossy publication, Balanced
Communities & Studentification. This outlines what
we mean by 'balanced community', what we mean by 'studentification',
and what priority actions can be taken by the various agencies concerned.
The book is invaluable for presenting a case to local officers,
councillors, MPs, and so on.
Of course, our main concern has been campaigning.
A crucial avenue is direct access to government ministers, in our
case, Iain Wright, Minister for Planning. On 15 January, he announced
plans to consult on the Use Classes Order (UCO). On 5 February he
was lobbied in London by a delegation from Nottingham, including
NAG. He returned the favour on 13 May, visiting our colleagues in
Loughborough and Nottingham. On 24 June, in a Parliamentary debate
on the PRS, he reiterated his commitment to consultation. And on
23 October, he confirmed to the Lobby that he hoped to consult on
the UCO before the end of the year.
A second campaigning avenue is through formal consultations. The
most important this year has been the consultation on HMOs and the
Use Classes Order, which was in prospect a year ago. This was commissioned
from ECOTEC at the beginning of 2008. Members of the Lobby contributed
to initial focus groups (in Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton) and
then attended a Seminar at Communities & Local Government (CLG)
on 9 April (see our Hymn Sheet).
ECOTEC's Report was published on 26 September, as Evidence
Gathering - Housing in Multiple Occupation and possible planning
responses. Though we have some reservations, the Lobby
welcomed the Report, especially its conclusion, "it is our
view that they [non-planning mechanisms] have limited impact upon
the longer-term issues surrounding houses in multiple occupation
… For this reason, it is suggested that Communities and Local
Government undertake wider consultation on proposed amendments to
the current Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987."
CLG also commissioned a Review of the private rented sector (PRS)
by Drs Rugg & Rhodes. The Lobby contributed to a Policy Round
Table on 'Student Housing' in London on 4 March. The PRS Review
was launched in York on 23 October as The
Private Rented Sector: its contribution and potential.
Its conclusions were disappointing, as the Lobby made clear in its
Response.
Consultations were also carried out by HEFCE (the Higher Education
Funding Council for England). In March, the Dept for Innovation,
Universities & Skills (DIUS) announced its New
University Challenge. The Lobby commented on this. We also
responded to the formal consultation by HEFCE, and attended a presentation
by HEFCE in Leeds on 24 September. Incidentally, HEFCE also consulted
on Sustainable Development in Higher Education: we took the opportunity
to submit our paper on Accounting
for Sustainability (originally produced in 2006). In addition,
on 12 November, DIUS launched a Debate
on the Future of Higher Education: again the Lobby submitted
a response.
A third avenue for campaigning is of course the media. Education
Guardian published a letter from
the Lobby, on study in higher education, on 2 September. The publication
of the Report on HMOs attracted considerable attention, including
'New law could end 'studentification' of towns', Guardian,
and 'Are students ruining your town?' Jeremy Vine, BBC
Radio 2, both on 26 September, and 'Flint cracks the whip on student
digs' Mail on Sunday, 28 September (the last two included
contributions from members of the Lobby).
(Members locally also use personal lobbying [of councillors and
MPs], formal consultations [on planning and housing policy] and
the media [press and broadcast] for their campaigns.)
There were a number of notable publications during the year, including
the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's A Strategy for Houses
in Multiple Occupation in Northern Ireland: Consultation Document
April 2008, the House of Commons Communities & Local Government
Committee's The Supply
of Rented Housing 21 May 2008 (with contributions by the
Lobby), Universities UK's Universities Planning Guidance
May 2008 (referring to student housing), and the National Housing
& Planning Advice Unit's Rapid Evidence
Assessment of the Research Literature on the Purchase and Use of
Second Homes, 10 October 2008 (to which the Lobby has responded).
A number of conferences were also held during the year, NUS's Students
in the Community: Beyond the Campus at Leeds, 9 June 2008,
the University of Brighton's Universities & Community Liaison
in Brighton, 11-12 August 2008, and Unipol's Student Housing:
The Market, The Community and What Students' Unions Can Do
in Leeds, 12-14 August 2008. The Brighton conference invited Jo
Calvert-Mindell from Canterbury to contribute. But the other two
did not see fit to talk to any community representatives.
Our year ended with a valuable local planning decision, with national
implications. In his Appeal
Decision, dismissing a proposal for a student residence in Headingley
in Leeds, on 19 November, a Planning Inspector said, "I find
that the over-concentration of students in this part of the city
would not sit well with the Government's objectives of creating
socially cohesive and well-balanced communities as stated in [national
policies] PPS1 and PPS3." This makes the invaluable point,
relevant to us all, that concentrations of HMOs are contrary to
national planning policy.
So another year sees us as a larger network, active on many fronts,
well-established on the national agenda, and looking forward to
consultation on HMO legislation - our second objective. The wheels
are certainly slow - but thanks to our efforts, they are still turning!
Further details of the National HMO Lobby's activities are available
on the 'History' and the 'National
Developments' pages, on the Lobby's website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2008
^Top
Fifth
Report 2009
The National HMO Lobby began informally in 2000,
and was formally constituted in 2004. The Lobby is now an association
of over fifty community groups in over thirty towns in all parts
of the UK. Its aim is to redress the impact of concentrations of
houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) on the cohesion and sustainability
of local communities. The Lobby offers its members solidarity in
adversity, exchange of information and collective campaigning.
The past year has been dominated by the government Consultation
on our key objective, planning control of HMOs. After the ECOTEC
Report of last year, we spent the first five months of this year
waiting for the Consultation. In this period, our members in Loughborough
and Southampton lobbied the then Planning Minister, Iain Wright,
and Alan Whitehead and Andy Reed asked questions in the Commons.
Then in May, the Consultation paper was published, and for three
months, the Lobby moved into full campaigning mode. First of all,
we circulated a number of Campaign Bulletins, mapping out the issues
raised (Bulletins 01, 02, 05, 06). Then on 12 June in Birmingham,
we held a National HMO Seminar, where two-dozen delegates
spent the day working through the Consultation paper - exhaustively!
(Bulletins 03, 04, 07) Finally, further Bulletins outlined model
responses to the Consultation (08-12). Many of our members sent
in responses, and so did many allies. The Lobby's campaign culminated
in a delegation to Communities & Local Government, where we
discussed the issues with the officer responsible for the Consultation,
and we presented the National HMO Lobby's formal response
(a 32-page booklet) (Bulletin 13). Bulletin 14 gives a more detailed
account of the campaign.
The Consultation closed on 7 August, and since then, we have been
waiting, first for a Report on the Consultation exercise, and then
for a decision by the government on what action it will take. After
four months, both are still awaited. Meanwhile (ironically, once
the Consultation was completed), the media took considerable interest
in the issue. Immediately following the close, there were items
in the Sunday Times, the Times, Channel 4 News
and Planning magazine. In September, there were a trio
of articles in the Guardian and the Observer.
And then in October, there were reports on You & Yours
(Radio 4) and the Politics Show (BBC1), as well as an irritable
piece on 'disgruntled locals' in the Guardian.
Meanwhile, the Lobby continued to grow. New members joined in Bristol
(Kingsdown Conservation Group), Chichester (RA Co-ordinating Group),
Manchester ((SE Fallowfield), Newcastle (Brandling Village RA) and
Salford (E Salford CC). And the Lobby contributed to conferences
held by BURA (Turning the Tide of HMOs, London, 27 Jan),
by Unipol (Rugg Review, London, 28 Jan) and by the Northern
Housing Consortium (Private Sector Housing, Harrogate,
23 April).
Finally, it's worth noting that the August issue of the journal
Environment & Planning A (Vol 41, issue 8), edited
by Darren Smith, was devoted to 'Student Geographies', a series
of academic analyses of studentification - all of which confirmed
the need for our lobbying.
Now we wait for government action!
Further details of the National HMO Lobby's activities are available
on the 'History' and the 'National
Developments' pages, on the Lobby's website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2009
^Top
Sixth
Report 2010
The National HMO Lobby began informally in 2000,
and was formally constituted in 2004. The Lobby is now an association
of over fifty community groups in over thirty towns in all parts
of the UK. Its aim is to redress the impact of concentrations of
houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) on the cohesion and sustainability
of local communities. The Lobby offers its members solidarity in
adversity, exchange of information and collective campaigning.
The last year ended on a cliff-hanger. The government had published
its consultation paper on HMO legislation in England, the Lobby
had mounted a huge campaign, the issue was widely discussed in the
media. But four months on, we still had no decision!
This year has seen the culmination of our campaigning - unfortunately,
in more ways than one. First of all, at the beginning of the new
year, on 27 January, Minister John Healey announced that, yes, as
a result of the consultation, the government would introduce new
legislation on HMOs in England. The government agreed to all three
changes proposed by the Lobby - a new definition of HMO, a new use
class for HMOs, and conversion of HMOs to family homes as permitted
development. At the same time, CLG published a Summary of Responses
to the consultation, which showed that our contribution was overwhelming,
with widespread support from councils and professionals. In fact,
92% of respondents supported the legislative change we advocated.
The outcome was summarised in Campaign Bulletin 15.
On 8 March the relevant Statutory Instruments (SIs) were published
(one amending the Use Classes Order, the other amending the General
Permitted Development Order) and they came into force on 6 April.
Meanwhile, CLG published a new Circular 05/10, outlining the changes.
However, 2010 was a year of both triumph and tragedy. The first
sign of the latter was an Early Day Motion, tabled by the Opposition
front bench, calling for the revocation of the new SIs. A General
Election was called before any action could be taken. But in the
ensuing campaign, there were further signs of things to come. The
Conservatives announced that they would amend the new regulations:
this was immediately challenged by the Lobby; and on 21 April, at
a face-to-face meeting in Leeds, the Shadow Housing Minister gave
his assurance that "We will ensure that there is no gap between
Labour's new legislation (active from April 2010) and any equivalent
legislation introduced by a Conservative government."
We were ill-advised to listen. The same approach continued once
the new government was formed. The new Housing Minister said in
the Commons on 10 June, "I confirm that we do not plan to overthrow
the rules that the previous government introduced." Exactly
a week later, in a written statement, he announced his intention
to overthrow the rules, "to allow changes of use between family
housing and small shared houses to take place freely without the
need for planning applications." The rest is history. A brief,
selective consultation was held. The Lobby of course opposed the
new proposals (along with the majority of respondents) with its
Response to the Consultation
on Houses in Multiple Occupation: Changes to Planning Legislation.
But the Minister pressed on regardless, and on 1 October, new SIs
came into force, effectively sabotaging much of what the Lobby had
gained earlier in the year, after a decade of campaigning. (Not
all is lost: we remain better placed in England than we were before
6 April.) A new Circular 08/10 outlined the changes, together with
new guidance on Article 4 Directions.
Two rearguard actions have been under way, both supported by the
Lobby. In Parliament, the Opposition front bench tabled two Early
Day Motions, in turn calling for the annulment of the new SIs. As
a result, these were debated by the Delegated Legislation Committee,
but they were endorsed. A debate in Westminster Hall followed, and
a delegation from the All-Party Parliamentary Group to the Minister,
as well as delegations from Bournemouth and Southampton to CLG officers
- to no effect. At the same time, Milton Keynes Council applied
for a judicial review of the new legislation. This was unsuccessful,
but the Council has been granted an Oral Hearing of their application
(to be arranged).
Meanwhile, local councils in England, lobbied by members of the
Lobby, are beginning to explore the use of Article 4 Directions,
to regain control over HMO conversions. These currently include
Manchester, Portsmouth, Leeds, Bournemouth, Exeter, Milton Keynes
and Newcastle. A consultation on planning fees offers the possibility
that applications under these Directions may be liable for fees.
Planning legislation is the key issue. But elsewhere, things have
not been quite so bleak. John Healey also consulted on HMO licensing
in January, and councils in England now have delegated power to
introduce additional HMO licensing, without reference to national
government.
The Lobby has continued to attempt to build bridges. In February,
the National Co-ordinator participated in a Policy Seminar held
in London by Volunteering England on Can students be good citizens?
And in June, the Lobby contributed to the NUS/UUK publication Living
Together, Working Together (which tacitly admitted that demographic
imbalance was the key problem for local communities). On the same
topic, the Guardian published a letter from the National
Co-ordinator on 16 December.
In support of its members, the Lobby has produced a number of Briefing
Bulletins. One was on Covenants on HMOs, two were on Local
HMO Policies, and another was on HMO Legislation.
Finally, it's good to welcome two new members, New Way Tenants
& Residents Association (Ormskirk) and Sunnyside Residents Association
(Northampton).
As a National HMO Lobby, we have now achieved all we could reasonably
expect in the present circumstances. We had three objectives. HMO
licensing is not universal in the UK, but it is as widespread as
is feasible. Effective planning controls on HMOs are now available
in some measure in Northern Ireland and in England, but not yet
in Scotland and Wales. HMO taxation is an aspiration, but it not
realistically achievable (it requires primary legislation, and we
have an unsympathetic government). At best, our future lies in sharing
good practice.
Further details of the National HMO Lobby's activities are available
on the 'History' and the 'National
Developments' pages, on the Lobby's website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2010
^Top
Seventh
Report 2011
The National HMO Lobby began informally
in 2000, and was formally constituted in 2004. The Lobby is now
an association of over sixty community groups in nearly forty towns
in all parts of the UK [though I suspect that some of those groups
may have lapsed]. Its aim is to redress the impact of concentrations
of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) on the cohesion and sustainability
of local communities. The Lobby offers its members solidarity in
adversity, exchange of information and collective campaigning.
This year began in the aftermath of the setback in October 2011,
when new Statutory Instruments came into force in England, undoing
much of what the Lobby had gained after a decade of campaigning.
Nevertheless, planning legislation in England still provides a definition
of HMO (adopted from the Housing Act 2004), and also a new Class
C4 for smaller HMOs (larger HMOs remain sui generis). Though
change of use from a family home (Class C3) to HMO (Class C4) is
now permitted development, local planning authorities can still
use an Article 4 Direction to remove permitted development rights
and require landlords to seek planning permission. The first to
do so was Manchester City Council, and after 12 months' notice,
their Direction came into force on 8 October 2011. Another 24 councils
have followed suit (and more are considering Directions). The Lobby
has circulated frequent updates on this developing situation, and
maintains a record on its 'Local HMO
Plans' webpage.
However, Article 4 Directions only provide councils with the power
to control HMOs, they don't of themselves provide justification
for refusal of planning permission. For this, a relevant planning
policy is necessary. Thus, several local planning authorities are
now preparing such policies. Again, the Lobby has compiled and circulated
information, both on its website, and through Briefing Bulletins,
in particular one on Model HMO Policy (synthesising current
best practice) in June, and another on National HMO Policies
in October (tabulating the features of a dozen current examples).
Milton Keynes Council continued a rearguard action against the
revised legislation. On 20 January 2011, the High Court permitted
a Judicial Review, which took place on 30-31 March. The Lobby submitted
a Witness Statement in support
of the Council. But the judgement on 11 April went against Milton
Keynes.
Meanwhile, the government has published a number of consultation
papers in England, which in various ways have a bearing on the Use
Class Order. In June 2011, CLG published an Issues Paper on How
change of use is handled in the planning system; the Lobby
responded, in the light of its experience
of the Use Class Order. Then in July, CLG published the Draft
National Planning Policy Framework, which will replace the
various existing Planning Policy Statements; again, the Lobby has
responded.
The demand for HMOs remains volatile, in England at least. On the
one hand, student demand seems likely to decline. Surveys and reports,
reproduced in the press, indicate that "tuition fee increases,
coupled with declining numbers of 18-24 year-olds in the general
population over the next decade, will see a 14% decline in British
higher education student numbers over the next ten years ... half
(52%) of all younger students will choose a local higher education
establishment and stay with their parents" [though the level
of demand will vary between universities]. On the other hand, housing
shortages and changes in housing benefits will give rise to new
demand for HMOs from other sources.
All the information above concerns England only. Each of the other
countries of the UK is following a different route. Since 2004,
Northern Ireland has had thorough HMO licensing (if not entirely
comprehensive), and in the same year, HMOs were brought under planning
control. Since 2008, policy in Belfast has set a threshold of 10%
HMOs per street, with some areas excepted. An inter-agency group,
led by Belfast City Council, has since undertaken a research study
into the Holyland area (where HMOs are most concentrated), with
a view to presenting proposals for rebalancing. The key proposal
is to build purpose-built student accommodation away from residential
areas, and there is already interest from developers and a number
of sites around the city centre are under consideration.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, all landlords have to register, and all
HMOs are subject to licensing; but HMOs remain in the same class
as family houses. However, Sustainable Communities Scotland (SUSCOMS),
our sister organisation north of the border, has lobbied successfully
for significant clauses in the Private Rented Housing (Scotland)
Act 2011 (which come into effect in January). One is a link between
licensing and planning, giving local authorities the power to refuse
to consider an application for an HMO licence if it considers that
there would be a breach of planning control. The other is the use
of licensing effectively as a planning control, giving local authorities
the power to refuse to grant an HMO licence if it considers that
there is overprovision of HMOs in the locality; implementation of
Section 13 of the Act has been delayed in order to give Councils
time to develop local HMO policies.
Finally, Wales has mandatory licensing of larger HMOs (like England),
but as yet no planning controls on HMOs. A new administration offers
the hope that some action might be taken.
Finally, it's good to welcome two more members, Iffley Road Area
Residents Association, in Oxford, and North East Bassett Residents
Association, in Southampton, who joined us during the year.
As we noted last year, the National HMO Lobby has now achieved
all we could reasonably expect in the present circumstances. HMO
licensing is not universal in the UK, but it is as widespread as
is feasible. Effective planning controls on HMOs are now available
in some measure in Northern Ireland, in England and in Scotland
- but not yet in Wales. HMO taxation is an aspiration, but is not
realistically achievable (it requires primary legislation, and we
have an unsympathetic government).
At best, our future lies in sharing information and good practice.
Examples of this were the Briefing Bulletins on Universities
and HMOs, which shared information nationally on HMOs managed
by universities, and on Keeping the Peace, which surveyed
measures taken in various towns on student antisocial behaviour.
Further details of the National HMO Lobby's activities are available
on the 'History' and the 'National
Developments' pages, on the Lobby's website.
Dr Richard Tyler, Co-ordinator, National HMO Lobby, November 2011
^Top
National HMO Lobby
email: hmolobby@hotmail.com
website: www.hmolobby.org.uk
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