Preston eyes significant extension of HMO control measures
The local authority wants to increase the area of the city covered by an Article 4 direction blocking permitted development rights for houses in multiple occupation for up to six people.
Parts of seven wards in inner Preston are already covered by an Article 4 on HMOs, which means developers must obtain planning permission to carry out conversions of properties into shared houses in those areas.
The city council now wants to expand the Article 4 area to the whole of Preston’s main urban zone, where most HMOs are concentrated.
If approved, area covering all wards south of the M55 motorway, west of the M6, north of the River Ribble and east of the A582, will be the subject of stricter rules on HMOs.
The aim of increasing the boundaries of the direction is to give the city council a greater degree of control over where HMOs are delivered and to mitigate against impacts of this kind of development such as noise and disturbance, “which can cause concern to local communities”, according to a cabinet report.
Preston is not the only local authority seeking a tighter grip on HMO development. In recent months, Bolton, Hyndburn, and Salford have all pursued Article 4 directions to remove PDR for small HMOs in a bid to curb antisocial behaviour.
Chorley desperately needs to get a grip of the HMO situation. Developers prevented from creating more HMOs in surrounding town seem to have descended en masse on Chorley with many commercial building and large houses being converted into poor quality accommodation destroying the character of the town and introducing many issues with anti social behaviour and parking. If they don’t get a grip soon Reform will be the big winners at the next local elections.
By Dom
Bolton has the largest proportion of HMOs as part of the housing stock in the UK.
By Anonymous
Are they planning to allow a lot more new small flats and co-living spaces to balance the loss of HMO accomodation? Those who can only afford a room in a shared house will not magically become able to afford their own house. The demand will simply spill out to areas where there are no restrictions and push up the price of already existing HMOs.
By Ababa
Good – now follow on with a local requirement to return HMOs to normal housing stock within a fixed period, or start to be fined increasing values that wipe out the profit. These neo-slums should never have been allowed to develop, but that kind of thinking requires the slumlords in our political system to attack their own interests, and what kind of pig ever turns down a self-filling trough ?
By John Smith