Council unveils plan to curb HMO growth

A council which is grappling with the rapid rise of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) has unveiled plans to restrict them in future.

With more than 2,300 currently operating, the local authority has unveiled a draft local plan designed to impose stricter controls on HMO, the Southend Echo reports.

Southend Council says it wants to mitigate their impact on neighbourhoods.

The proposed measures, which are not expected to take effect until 2027, have sparked both support and criticism from community leaders and residents.

Restrict new HMOs

The draft plan introduces robust criteria for approving new HMOs or expanding existing ones.

Applications could be deemed harmful if more than 10% of properties within a 50-metre radius are already HMOs.

The rules will also aim to prevent homes from being flanked by HMOs on both sides or forming a continuous row of three or more such properties.

These measures, according to the council, will empower its planning committee to reject applications that threaten community cohesion, a power it currently lacks.

HMOs becoming a ‘problem’

Tony Cox, leader of the council’s Reform Group, has urged for immediate adoption of the new regulations, and he said: “I think we need greater restrictions on HMOs because they are becoming a real problem.”

He added that the best way to restrict them is by using the local plan, but it won’t be agreed until next year before coming into force in 2027.

He says the council should accept the move now before the local plan is adopted in a bid to stop ‘a proliferation of HMOs everywhere’.

However, Councillor Anne Jones, who oversees planning and housing, defended the council’s approach saying that the plan would deliver the necessary controls.

She said the council couldn’t adopt a standalone action and had to follow national policy for such changes to be added to the local plan.

Southend reported to the Ombudsman

Meanwhile, the Milton Society, a local conservation group, has escalated its concerns over HMO numbers by reporting Southend Council to the Local Government Ombudsman.

It says the council failed to review its 2015 local plan in 2020, as legally required, allowing HMO numbers to surge unchecked.

Andy Atkinson, the society’s chairman, told the Echo that HMO development in the last two or three years has become a ‘problem’.

He wants the council to issue a supplementary planning document to address the issue rather than delaying action by tying it to the local plan.