by Ray George
There have been two recent meetings dominated by the same theme. The first was the occasional meeting on Planning for residents’ associations held at the Civic Centre on 14th February and the other, the North Southampton Community Forum on 20th February. The theme which causes so much concern is “houses in multiple occupation” (HMOs). As yet, this has not been a problem within this Conservation Area. Licensing of all HMOs has been introduced in 4 wards including Swaythling. (Licensing is quite separate from the requirement for planning permission to turn a house into an HMO). Streets where there are many student houses have become lined with unsightly “to let” signs. It had been hoped to have a licence condition that forbids such signs, but the Council were advised that this would be unlawful.
Our M.P.,Coroline Nokes, was at the Community Forum. She is working to get the government to allow councils to make Temporary Stop Orders to end the practice of advertising for and filling properties with tenants before getting planning permission to become an HMO.
The City Council had decided that in law an HMO is not a “dwellinghouse” and so the owner needs planning permission to build an extension to fill with even more students. But they had to change this opinion because the Government thinks the opposite.