Wirral councillors have railed against HMOs whilerejecting one highly criticised scheme in the borough.
Councillors across the political spectrum turned down theapplication for a seven-bed home and attacked the growing popularity of HMOsamong developers, who they claimed were putting too many people into thehouses.
Councillor Janette Williamson voiced fears about 'lowcost, low quality housing'� concentrated in specific areas, while Councillor Paul Stuart said that by building so manyHMOs, 'we are creating tomorrow's slums today'� and likened building large numbers of HMOs to, 'crammingpeople into rabbit hutches'�.
Earlier this month, nearby Liverpool Council announced it would fight a Government decision to block the renewal of its controversial selective licensing scheme, which it had hoped to keep going until 2025.
While more licensing schemes are beingintroduced across the UK - with a new one set to be launched every eight daysin the next 12 months - councils are also coming up with tougher rules, such asBrighton and Hove Council which has just agreed some of the country's moststringent measures on HMOs.
Gavin Dick, local authority policy officer atthe National Residential Landlords Association, says many councillors don'tlike HMOs as they create complaints from residents when they become a focalpoint in streets where there can sometimes be a car for each of the sixresidents.
He tells LandlordZONE: 'Councillors are guided by votes, not principles. The trend for student HMOs started in the early 2000s when the Government expanded universities but didn't build enough halls of residence so HMOs were a response to that demand. Their quick growth has alienated residents.'�
He says landlords should be realistic aboutapplying to change a property into an HMO as, where a council has an Article 4Direction in place, it will usually be turned down by the planning committee.
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