Converting empty homes into HMOs could help solve housing crisis

This is nonsense!

Councils have effectively banned HMO’s via Article 4, hence many former student landlords are turning to supported housing and Serco as they are exempt.

Converting empty hones will help store more people and ease the pressure on Councils. However, it creates a new problem and serves only to return us to the slum conditions of the past.

We need proper homes for people to live in family units. We need fewer people and more homes.

Is it serviced accommodation and if so who funds the services because LHA will not if tenants are on benefits?

If not services, I fear a return to the days of bedsits, which is a retrograde step taking the provision of housing back 30 years, caused primarily by Government failures and proposed legislation.

Why not leave the PRS to the people who “know” what is happening, rather than those who just “think” they know?

Good, well run HMOs where great care is taken to select compatible tenants can be very pleasant places to live.
It isn’t simply a case of acquiring a house and bunging in a load of random people.
As Billy says many councils have effectively banned any more HMOs with Article 4 Directives.

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 15/07/2025 – 09:54
No matter how well run the HMO may be, if it was built as a family home in an area with other family homes, it will be depressing for the neighbours.

Are these empty houses already council owned? If so, the councils should already have a programme to bring them back into social housing. If they are private, how would the council renovate them?
Maybe, councils should compulsorily purchase long term empty properties. This would put a rocket up owners who refuse to sell or update for no good reason e.g. Inheritance disputes.

No mention of selective licensing, I see!

Reply to the comment left by Billy Gunn at 15/07/2025 – 01:16
no brainer if its not in a great area.

Even if you take the moral stance and try and rent privately to a family – no one wants to live there because of the existing HMO’s….

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 15/07/2025 – 11:12
Absolute nonsense.
I live on a modern estate where several houses are rented as HMOs to graduate professionals and hospital workers. All of these houses were built as 4 bedroom family homes and are now either 4, 5 or 6 bedroom HMOs.
There’s nothing depressing about being surrounded by young, educated, middle class HMO dwellers.

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 15/07/2025 – 12:23
But, we’re not talking about young single professionals and nurses (although I did buy a 4 bed townhouse in Highgate which had been let to nurses for years. My neighbours were very relieved!).

Let’s be honest here, we’re talking about society’s underclass, who don’t care how they live, and certainly don’t care about the impact they have on others in the neighbourhood. We had several nearby, and they’ve been taken back into family ownership… after clearing up the needles and massive refurbishment.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 15/07/2025 – 12:30I live in a major city close to a uni and a hospital and many houses were rented to students/young professionals.
Since the council introduced Article 4 essentially banning HMO’s, the area has got much much worse as a lot of the properties are now rented to supported housing residents (people who have come out of prison and people with substance abuse issues) as these are exempt from Article 4, licensing etc
Trust me, we would all rather live next to students/young professionals!