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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
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
National HMO Lobby
email: hmolobby@hotmail.com
website: www.hmolobby.org.uk
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