Bath MP Don Foster yesterday spoke in the Westminster Hall debate on the South West Regional Spatial Strategy on the 7^th October, and called for a proper test to make sure that all brownfield sites were developed before areas in the green belt. 

Speaking in the debate, Don said, “[There is an] urgent need to have a sequential test so that we stick to the rule of developing brownfield, derelict properties first, and green belt land as a very last resort, if necessary. If we do not, it will lead to problems with developers cherry-picking the best and easiest sites, which would be a planning disaster.” 

Don also called on the Minister to allow student developments to count, saying, “Will the Minister at least reconsider the ludicrous situation in the centre of Bath, where 1,772 family homes are entirely occupied by students?  Building student accommodation on our two university campuses…would release many of those properties. Surely, releasing properties for ordinary home use should count towards the target.

Liberal Democrats in Bath are welcoming news that the Government is finally to give Councils the tools to tackle the issue of high concentrations of student houses or ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation” (HMOs) in specific areas of their authorities. We are really pleased that the Government is finally beginning to respond to the combined pressure from local residents, Councillors and MPs from across the country who have been lobbying for action to tackle ‘studentification’. 

Councils need the substantive tools to address the development and growth of large clusters of HMOs in University towns and cities – as in Oldfield Park in Bath for example – through the planning system.  The Government’s suggestion of allowing local Councils to use planning restraint policies and ‘Use Class Orders’ to control concentrations of HMOs and to help create more balanced, sustainable communities is therefore to be welcomed The Government is also looking at a range of parallel strategies for Councils to address community issues such as parking and waste. Some of these are already in place in Bath – such as the landlord accreditation scheme – and some have been tried in the past. B&NES was ahead of its time in setting up the Student Liaison Committee in 2003 to work with the Universities and the student’s union to improve town and gown relations, although its public engagement meetings and budget were cut by the new administration. 

Bath MP Don Foster has thanked those local residents and residents’ associations from Bath who have worked with us and have responded to the Government’s review on privately rented housing. Without their persistence over the years we wouldn’t have got this far. As this report is only a first step on a road which could lead to legislative changes work needs to continue to persuade the Government to give Councils the real powers they need to address ‘studentification’.  We look forward to seeing a Green Paper in due course.” 

The press release from the Department of Communities and Local Government can be found here.And the report on possible planning responses can be found here.

Following the recent Councillors Campaign for Balanced Communities Annual Conference in Nottingham, we heard from Roberta Blackman-Woods MP (Durham) who is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Balanced Communities.

Roberta explained how valuable it was that the previous Minister for Local Government, Phil Woolas, was supportive of new legislation on HMOs, and what a loss it was that he moved elsewhere with the government re-shuffle last year. She identified institutional resistance to new legislation within the Department for Communities & Local Government. She sees the current review of the Private Rented Sector therefore as especially significant in changing attitudes – and lobbying of this Review as especially valuable.

So we are asking all local residents who want to voice there opinions about the situation in Oldfield Park to lobby the PRS Review.

Write to Dr Julie Rugg (Centre for Housing Policy, University of York), who is one of the academics carrying out the Review (see http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp/Projects/PRSreview.htm)

I think there are three important points to be made:-

1) HMOs are the problem, not particularly students – it’s the transience of HMO occupants which causes problems, whether these are students in university cities like Bath, or benefit claimants in seaside towns, or migrant workers in market towns, etc;

2) One side of these problems is the disruption HMOs cause to community cohesion – communities become unsustainable when a significant proportion of the population is perpetually changing.

3) Another side, equally important, is the fact that HMOs take away family homes at a time of acute housing shortage – to be used instead as seasonal second homes by students (or as temporary accommodation by others).

Write to Dr Julie Rugg at:

Dr Julie Rugg,

The Centre for Housing Policy,

The University of York,

Heslington,

York.

YO10 5DD

Or email her at jr10@york.ac.uk

We would appreciate you copying in Cllr McGall on: shaun_mcgall@bathnes.gov.uk

On 15 January, Iain Wright MP, Minister for Planning, gave a written answer in the House of Commons: “We propose to consult on possible amendments to the Use Classes Order in relation to HMOs later in the year.” Preliminaries to this consultation are now under way. CLG says, “Communities and Local Government have commissioned a short evidence-gathering exercise, being carried out by ECOTEC consultants, which will identify good practice and determine what levers, in addition to planning policy, might be suitable in tackling [HMO] problems.”

The first step is a series of telephone interviews by ECOTEC of officers in local authorities, universities and elsewhere including the National HMO Lobby (to which Downstream South and the Bath Federation of Residents Associations are affilated).

These interviews will feed into a series of focus groups in Leeds, Loughborough and Nottingham (and perhaps elsewhere), bringing together council departments, universities, landlords – and community representatives.

In turn the focus groups will inform a HMO Seminar to be held at the CLG on 9 April. A range of stakeholders have been invited to send representatives – local authorities, universities, residents groups, the National HMO Lobby, landlords, the government itself. I understand representatives from Leeds, Loughborough and Nottingham have been invited, and the Chair of the HMO Lobby.
We’ll keep everyone posted on progress. We do seem to be making headway at last!