Campaigners have welcomed progress on planning controls but warn against shifting the problem to other areas
Cambridge City Council is set to introduce restrictions on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) following cross-party consensus that action is needed to stop rogue landlords cramming tenants into substandard housing.
Donna Ferguson, chair of Guest Road Residents’ Association, called on the council to introduce an Article Four direction and a limit on the percentage of HMOs in an area. HMOs for six residents or less are currently allowed under permitted development rules but the Article Four direction would remove this, meaning all HMOs will need full planning permission.
Councillor Katie Thornburrow, leader of the council, agreed that “this is a highly important tool” but said it would need “watertight, comprehensive evidence” to be implemented “legally and robustly”. The Labour councillor told a council meeting on Thursday (July 16) that officers spent the last year preparing a report to be put to cabinet in autumn, when they will “map out” how the direction will be implemented.
Cllr Katie Porrer said that she and fellow Lib Dem councillor, Imogene Blackburn-Horgan, had first called for an Article Four direction two years ago. She said: “This is not, for us, about trying to remove them from the housing stock or demonising those who live in them.
“This for us is about better living standards for tenants and better behaviour from the minority of landlords who fail to manage their HMOs properly and who give a bad name to this type of housing provision in our city. What we need in Cambridge is well-managed, decent and livable HMOs which integrate into our wider community and this means landlords and management companies need to step up and provide this.”
Cllr Beth Gardiner-Smith said: “I think we’re in danger of violently agreeing with each other – all of us, this evening.” The Labour councillor said that HMOs are “part of the fabric” of her ward of Romsey and have been “for a very long time”.
But, she said she was “particularly concerned about the standards of these HMOs”. She said: “Carved up into six, seven, rooms with no living space and only a galley kitchen as the communal space.
“These are not acceptable standards for anybody in the city – just because it’s affordable housing doesn’t mean it should be substandard housing. We should demand the best for all residents in this city.”
Cllr Kathryn Fisher said: “A lot of people in this room have said HMOs are an important part of our housing mix, and I don’t disagree that they currently are – but I don’t think they should be.” The Green councillor said: “The fact that they are proliferating, and that we have so many, is a sign that this council has failed to provide enough council housing.
“I’m reluctant on the brutal 10 per cent cut because it feels like it’s not actually solving the root of the problem, which is if you make it so it’s easier to make more money by cramming more people into a building that’s what landlords will do. I don’t really want to see 10 per cent bad housing with people crammed in – we shouldn’t be happy to accept any level of substandard housing.”
Donna, speaking after the meeting, said she was pleased to see “so much cross-party support”. She said: “It doesn’t look like they’re going to support the ten per cent threshold, but in some ways the article four is more important.
“They just need to be clear with some sort of clarity for residents on what over-concentration means in practice. The most important thing is that we keep up the pressure to make sure it’s city wide and not just where HMOs are already concentrated. If we only have the article in parts of Cambridge it will just shift the problem to other areas.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login