Issue - meetings

The Private Sector Housing Manager introduced the report submitted to the Committee.  He confirmed that the Assistant Director, Planning Development, had co-authored the report.  The Committee was advised of the background to the report and informed that the two most common measures to control and further regulate Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) were additional HMO licensing and an Article 4 Direction.  The Private Sector Housing Manager reminded the meeting that Guildford Borough had mandatory HMO licensing only and that HMOs of 3-4 persons did not require a licence to operate lawfully. 

The Private Sector Housing Manager informed the Committee that the data within the report did not support the introduction of additional HMO licensing or justify an Article 4 Direction in Guildford at the current time.

During the ensuing discussion a number of issues were raised and responded to:

·       A member of the Committee questioned why the report had been prepared without any consultation with residents.  He suggested that the views of residents be added into the report. 

·       In addition, the same Committee member advised the meeting that the ward he represented had numerous HMOs due to its proximity to the University of Surrey and the Royal Surrey County Hospital and he suggested the data presented in the report underplayed the number and density of HMOs.  As an example, the Committee member contrasted the HMO figures in the report for Beckingham Road and the Ashenden estate with student residency information for the same areas provided to him by the University of Surrey and suggested that there were many HMOs not captured by the data used for the report. 

·       In reply, the Private Sector Housing Manager stated that the information within the report reflected HMOs that were known to exist.  He suggested that perhaps the information provided to the Committee member by the University of Surrey was less reliable and could reflect students living with parents rather than an additional HMO.  He stated that if there was a re-writing of the report in future then new data sources could be considered. 

·       The Assistant Director, Planning Development acknowledged that the report was a snapshot pulled together from various sources and was not the definitive position on the concentration of HMOs across the Borough.  She suggested that if controls were to be explored further then a completely reliable source of data to identify HMOs would need to be established and maintained going forward. 

·       With reference to section 12.1 (iv) of the report, entitled ‘HMO Decline (2022-2023)’, members of the Committee questioned why a slowing of applications for new HMOs had been presented within the report as a decline, especially since the overall number of licensed HMOs had continued to increase.  In response, the Private Sector Housing Manager indicated that the report was intending to show that the annual rate of HMO applications was returning to pre-2018 levels.  He advised that Figure 4 within the report was intended to show that the potential impact of an Article 4 Directive had become less significant over  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13

The Executive Advisory Board (EAB) considered a report which provided information regarding the viability of applying further controls to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and reviewed the potential amount, and recovery of, costs incurred by the Council in relation to HMOs.

Due to the level of evidence required to bring forth further HMO controls, the report considered the nature of HMO occupiers and examined HMO spread, density and connection to complaints from the public, including reports of Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) to both the Council and the Police.

The report was led by data which had been collected and analysed prior to the evaluation of the options available to extend HMO controls and this data had informed discussions in respect of the feasibility of further HMO controls in the Borough.  The report discussed legal responsibilities, potential cost gaps and suggested methods to close any potential cost gaps in relation to topics such as waste collection and Council Tax / Business Rates.

The report detailed several areas of risk to the Council and significant challenges to both resourcing of Place Services and Environment & Regulatory Services and in addition, to the effectiveness of either an Article 4 Direction (requiring planning permission for the change of use of a flat or house to an HMO where 3 or more unrelated people would occupy the dwelling) and / or additional licensing controls would have if implemented.  The spread and density of existing HMOs could not be controlled by an Article 4 Direction.

The data analysed in the report did not support the theory that HMO density was causational to ASB.

The data indicated that reports to the Council or Police relating to HMOs were not sufficiently significant or frequent to warrant extending additional controls to the HMO marketplace and the evidence suggested that application to the Secretary of State to either enact Article 4 or to extend HMO licensing in Guildford, to include areas of additional licensing schemes, would not be successful.

The report contained recommendations to the Executive that an Article 4 Direction and additional HMO licensing should not be pursued as these measures were not supported by current data.  It was further recommended that the Council may wish to consider encouraging a change in national legislation to require private domestic landlords to pay business rates and that landlords be free to choose between the private and public sector to comply with their legal duty to have accumulations of commercial waste removed from HMO properties.

The reason for the recommendation was that an HMO review report considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 29 June 2021 had prompted further review by the EAB of the options available to the Council to control the spread and density of HMOs and to evaluate potential cost gaps of HMOs to the Council.  In addition, to identify if the Council could successfully implement further controls by analysing the relationship between the current HMO spread and density with links to ASB and complaints to the Council and HMOs.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44