Additional HMO licensing coming back in Greenwich?

Greenwich had an Additional HMO licensing scheme from 1st October 2017 to 30 Sept 2022. No review of the success or failure of that scheme has been published. Despite that they are consulting on a new scheme click here

If the first scheme was so successful why would a further scheme be needed? If it wasn’t successful then what lessons have been learned to improve it in future?

Greenwich has recently introduced selective licensing in a small area centring around Plumstead, said to be where the worst privately rented properties are located. Despite the selective licence designation including all the small HMOs in that area they have posted on their licensing website here under the Additional licensing heading that “We will soon be consulting on a proposal to introduce another five-year scheme from April 2023. This means that for a short period, we will not require you to licence smaller HMOs (three or more unrelated tenants).”

But have made no mention that during that period a selective licence will be needed if the small HMOs that are in the selective licensing area – that’s very misleading when fines are up to £30,000 for not having a licence and that area covers about 20% of the borough.

No evidence has been provided for the need for this replacement Additional scheme and the fact that a consultation is taking place at all doesn’t seem to have been advertised.

Consultations spanning a holiday period, eg Xmas, should ideally be extended to take that into consideration but they’ve chosen to consult for the minimum period allowed.

So if you want to have a say make sure you don’t miss it.

Dis Belief

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