Plea made for no more shared homes where communities are 'overwhelmed'

Campaigners say restrictions on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) cannot undo the damage already done to many areas left with no homes for families and diminishing services.

Residents want increased efforts to distribute the impact of shared homes more evenly throughout the city and for new ways to claw back family homes which have already been converted to HMOs.

The call comes after council officers rejected proposals to tighten up planning restrictions, saying it could actually lead to more HMOs being created.

However it has been proposed to expand the use of controls limiting the number of HMOs in streets to all parts of the city.

Brighton and Hove City Council said it already has some of the toughest rules in the country and further restrictions could face costly legal challenges from property owners.

Council officers said current restrictions were not intended to cap HMO numbers but to prevent overconcentration in certain neighbourhoods.

New figures have shown the scale of the HMO issue in the city which has a student population of about 40,000 as well as many employees forced to live in shared houses because of high rental costs.

The council is currently investigating 106 cases of unauthorised HMOs while 270 enforcement investigations since 2013 have led to 24 HMOs being shut down.

More than 750 licences were granted in 2016 by council officers.

Bernard Road resident Chris Roberts, where HMOs make up almost half of all homes, said: “It needs to be spread around the city more.

“More effort should be made to create better bus links from the universities to Portslade and Mile Oak.

“At the moment it is focused on the Lewes Road corridor and nothing else.”

Bill Gandey, of Family Homes not HMOs, said: “We want no more HMOs in our areas, we want them to go to other places.

“We are not against HMOs but they should now be in some other area which has a lower proportion than ours.

“There must be something that can be done to put something back into our communities to replace what is being taken out.”

Cllr Alan Robins, economic development and culture committee chairman, said: “We’re already using the planning powers the Government makes available and the Government is not likely to allow us to extend them.

“In the areas where there are the highest concentrations of student homes, our intervention is resulting in fewer HMOs being set up but it will not be possible within the law to stop it entirely.”

Campaigners said they did not oppose HMOs completely but resentment was rising at the number of shared homes used by students who did not pay council tax while their neighbours’ bills were set to rise again next month.

A University of Brighton spokesman said they worked closely with the council and other partners including local action teams to ensure residents’ concerns were heard and responded to. He said: “The development of our Moulsecoomb campus, together with our decision to maintain our student numbers at current levels rather than grow them further, will significantly reduce the pressure on local housing.”

RESIDENTS: THE WORST THING IS THE LOSS OF OUR AMENITIES

MORE than 1,200 residents signed Bill Gandey’s “family homes not HMOs” petition which warned the loss of family housing was the biggest threat Bevendean faced.

The petition led to a council report which proposes and dismisses changes to restrictions preventing homes becoming HMOs if more than ten per cent of properties within a 50 metre radius already are. The report concludes increasing the radius to 150 metres and reducing the percentage to five per cent would not be effective.

Officers said no council had a threshold below ten per cent so going further may be hard to justify legally. The problem is the council has answered a question residents never asked.

Mr Gandey said: “Changing the formula makes no difference. It is not something we asked for, it’s something they came up with. They have never answered the petition.”

Mr Gandey said Bevendean and Moulsecoomb had more than 800 HMOs and the council should stop all new applications in areas overwhelmed with shared homes. Council officials said greater restrictions would require Government approval and could be subject to expensive legal challenges.

Officers say the council would have to demonstrate dropping the threshold to five per cent is the tipping point where communities become unbalanced and current restrictions are ineffective.

Residents claim this has already happened.in parts of the city. Mr Gandey said: “Every time there is a new HMO we lose a family home.

“We lost our doctors and now that building is being turned into a HMO. That’s the worst thing, the community effect and the loss of our amenities.”

The council introduced restrictions in 2013 to limit HMOs in areas most affected. The problem is the new rules cannot be applied retrospectively so streets which had a higher proportion of HMOs before the rules continue to suffer.

Mr Gandey said: “The problem has existed for a long time, there was a report on the studentification of Moulsecoomb and Bevendean in 2003 and all the things it warned would happen have done.

“The problem isn’t new, unfortunately it is a bit like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.”

Conservative councillor Mary Mears believes more restrictions are needed. She said: “There is little that can be done for applications to expand HMOs from five bedrooms to seven bedrooms, there are more and more applications for larger HMOs in places like Coldean and Bevendean.

“If you are going from five bedrooms to seven bedrooms the tenants’ space becomes even less, their rooms are becoming smaller and smaller.”

Cllr Tracey Hill believes the solution is not more restrictions but greater enforcement of existing rules with more resources included in next year’s budget.

She said: “We cannot make it any stronger than it is so now our focus is on more enforcement.”

Chris Roberts lives in Bernard Road where HMOs make up almost half of all homes. He is supportive of the council’s approach which he said was working well but believes more options should be explored to not just stem the tide of HMOs but claw back properties for families.

He said: “When these HMOs are sold that should be a great opportunity to return them to family homes if they aren’t sold with HMO planning permission or licences.”

Mr Roberts also said action was needed to stop landlords using poorly sound-insulated conservatories as living rooms, allowing more rooms in a property to become bedrooms.

Cllr Hill said: “It is very difficult to do that. We cannot do it retrospectively but we can make sure all HMOs are operating with permission and to check whether those that say they were there before 2013 really were. I do understand residents wanting other areas to take some of the pressure.

“Students developers are still very focused on those areas, that’s what the students prefer, but there are discussions about how to encourage more student housing further away from the city centre where students could get the train in.”

As part of council moves to control HMOs, landlords in the 12 most affected wards apply for a licence designed to ensure converted properties offer decent conditions. These create considerable revenue for the council, £415,000 for the first nine months of 2016, but critics say they do not set a high enough bar for landlords. More than 2,200 licences were granted in the past three years and none refused.

One of residents’ greatest bugbears is the perception shared houses are the preserve of students. Mr Gandey said: “Universities always say how much money students bring to the economy but less is said about how much is lost because they are not charged council tax.

“Council budgets are getting smaller, they are cutting services and those who do pay council tax are being asked to pay more.”

The city’s universities say the idea HMOs are just for students is a myth. The University of Sussex said research commissioned by the city council and carried out by University of Brighton Professor Darren Smith showed only five to nine per cent of homes around the campus were used by students with a quarter not living in the city but commuting.

A spokeswoman said it had one of the largest accommodation portfolios in the UK with plans for more than 2,100 new student rooms. She said: “Sussex is in discussion with the bus companies about different routes to campus which will help us to identify suitable locations outside the city centre where our students might be able to live.”

HMOS IN NUMBERS

THERE is no conclusive figure for the number of HMOs in the city.

The only official figure, from the 2011 Census, identified 29,466 homes part of converted or shared houses though this number is considered higher than the picture on the ground.

The 2008 Private Sector House Condition Survey estimated there were 6,460 HMOs but that number has grown since then.

Landlords of larger HMOs have had to apply for licences for more than a decade while licensing for smaller HMOs in 12 council wards began in 2013.

Brighton and Hove City Council granted 753 licenses for HMOs in 2016, 413 in 2015, 1,094 in 2014 and no applications were refused.

HMO licences created £415,795 in council revenue between January 1 and September 30, 2016, £269,810 in 2015 and £218,312 in 2014.

There have been three successful prosecutions for unlicensed HMOs in 2015 which resulted in £34,100 in fines and £1,950 costs, and two in 2014 which resulted in £2,250 fines and £773 costs.

Planning permission is not usually required to convert a HMO into a shared house for up to six people but in Brighton and Hove, under an article four direction introduced in 2013, planning consent is required in five council wards. Planning permission is also required for HMOs for seven or more residents.

Since then 270 investigations have been launched and 24 enforcement notices requiring the HMO to stop operating have been obtained with seven out of eight appeals have been dismissed.

The planning department is currently investigating 106 possible cases of unauthorised HMOs.

About 30 planning applications between January 2015 and February 2017 predominately along the Lewes Road corridor have been refused.