28 June 2016
Green councillors have today restated their support for regulating Norwich’s number of new shared houses, or houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). A decision had originally been due in 2017, but Norwich City Council’s sustainable development panel will discuss the issue on Wednesday (1), after the Greens and a number of residents pushed for prompt action.
Residents and councillors are becoming increasingly concerned that the growing number of HMOs in the Golden Triangle area is driving up rents and creating unbalanced neighbourhoods.
Green councillors support the introduction of planning controls known as an Article 4 Direction, under which planning permission would be required to convert a house into an HMO. (2)
Councillor Simeon Jackson said: “The west city in particular needs planning controls like this to manage the number of HMOs. We also want to see licences brought in across the whole city to ensure that new HMOs are of good quality and are only permitted in areas where they do not already dominate the neighbourhood.”
With UEA and NUA planning to increase student numbers by nearly 4,000 by 2020, there are concerns that the pressure on housing in areas close to the UEA could get worse. Green Party councillor Denise Carlo, who represents Nelson ward, said: “Moving this discussion forward shows that the council is now taking this seriously. This is an important issue for residents and we are listening to their concerns.
“HMOs are an important part of the housing mix, and students and young professionals can contribute a lot to the area where they live. However, when an area becomes dominated by HMOs (3), it pushes up rents and makes it harder for young families to find a house.”
Councillor Carlo has written to the UEA vice-chancellor, David Richardson, asking the university to do more to tackle the issues – in particular, to support an Article 4 direction; build accommodation for second and third year students which could be converted to general housing if circumstances change and appoint a liaison officer to work with students living in the community.
Notes
(1) The meeting of the council’s sustainable development panel will take place on Wednesday 29th June at 9.30am. The Green representatives on the panel are Simeon Jackson and Lesley Grahame. The report on HMOs can be found here.
(2) Currently, no planning permission is required to change a house into an HMO for six or fewer occupants. However, around forty university cities, including Lincoln, York, and Loughborough have introduced planning controls known as an Article 4 Direction, which removes permitted development rights for changing houses to small HMOs. This permits councils to limit the number of HMOs in a given area by refusing new applications where an agreed limit has been reached.
(3) In Nelson ward, up to 40% of the houses have been converted to HMOs.
