A widow in her 80s said the spread of HMOs in her estate has left her with “no one to call on for support”
Residents living near Addenbrooke’s Hospital say they fear being left out as Cambridge City Council considers restrictions on HMOs.
HMOs, or houses of multiple occupancy, are properties housing at least three people where each room is rented individually with shared facilities such as kitchens and bathrooms. Currently planning permission is not needed to convert a house into a HMO for six people or fewer, but the council is preparing to introduce new restrictions.
Red Cross Areas Residents Association (RARA) represents people living near Addenbrooke’s Hospital where there is a large concentration of HMOs – many housing hospital workers. The group has asked the council to go even further and introduce a numerical threshold and a ban on HMOs “sandwiching” family homes between them.
Jane, one of their residents, said she brought her children up in her family home before the estate began to change as more HMOs popped up leaving her “isolated and alone” when her husband passed away.
She said: “What I hadn’t expected was that many would leave so quickly, meaning eventually I knew no one there. Many live in these circumstances of not knowing their neighbours so I put it out of my mind, but then I noticed one by one the houses from my street to the next cul-de-sac all underwent these changes, leaving me now in my 80s with no one to call on for support for me when I needed it most.”
She continued: “The Residents Association reached out to all and found the only permanent residents on the next road knew my husband had passed away and presumed as all the people in the HMOs now reaching from my house to the next cul-de-sac never mentioned me anymore that I was dead.”
She said the association started up to “address the increasing issues of poor waste, rats and rubbish strewn around my road, parking stress and arguments, people blocking each other in, something never experienced in previous years”.
Keith Mookai, neighbourhood watch coordinator for Red Cross Lane, said that HMOs can lead to more antisocial behaviour and conflict as people from different backgrounds come together.
The 40-year-old said: “People have different values and there’s the capacity for misunderstandings and conflict. It’s difficult to find accommodation close to the biomedical campus and more expensive than similar properties further out so there’s an acceptance of HMOs.
“There’s not enough accommodation for everyone so people make extra space in properties – it’s a necessary evil if you like – but there has to be some regulation.”
He said workers in Cambridge, one of the most expensive places in England to live, should get a similar wage bump to those in London to help with the higher cost of living.
Chris Panetsoudis, who has lived in a HMO since 2021, said that health workers face London prices for renting “without the wages”. The 32-year-old said: “You can have lower rent which is nice if you can do it – the bills are included too which is another benefit.
“You don’t really have direct contact with the landlord, it’s always through an agency and agencies can change. The one we have at the moment is actually doing quite a good job but that wasn’t the case when I moved in. I think we need to have some person to talk to on the council, and that should be quite clear, in case landlords refuse to make any repairs or changes.”
Councillor Karen Young, of Queen Edith’s, said they have quite a lot of HMOs in the area. She’s not aware of any plans to limit the proposed restrictions to certain areas of Cambridge, rather than covering the whole city.
The Liberal Democrat councillor said: “I think they’re an important part of the housing offering in Cambridge, it’s often the only way people can live somewhere sensible related to their work. But they have to be nice and they have to be safe for residents.”
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