Victory on multiple occupancy

The Government announced today that councils are going to be given new powers in relation to 'houses in multiple occupancy' (HMOs). The guts of the change is that HMOs will be considered a different 'use class' from other residential houses, recognising their status as commercially-operated business premises. This lines them up alongside shops and offices and the like.

What this means in practice is that owners will need to apply for planning permission to create a new HMO; the situation isn't retrospective and will have no impact on existing HMOs. This will give local people the right to make comments as they do with other planning applications and for the Council to take things like the density of HMOs into account when making decisions. It's not a right of veto - just a chance to have a say. It is also a chance to ensure that things like parking, waste disposal and safety are addressed at the outset. All good news!

This is something that my Lib Dem colleagues have been campaigning for over the last four years. It will help to ensure that our communities remain mixed and sustainable and that the social and economic problems of over-concentrations of HMOs seen in some cities (like Leeds) don't arise. It's great that nationally Labour have seen the common sense in this approach - Bristol Labour (and the Green Party) opposed this approach when it was debated in the Council a couple of years ago. Well done John Healey MP!

The other component of today's announcement, which we also campaigned for, was new powers to drive up housing standards in rented accommodation. HMOs are sadly often substandard and poorly managed, but councils have historically had little ability to address this. The new powers will give better protection to tenants and allow the Council to act where properties are dangerous or otherwise substandard.

This follows hot on the heels of another great common sense announcement about local communities, giving councillors the right to comment on licensing applications and to request that problem licenses be reviewed.