Tougher rules for houses in multiple occupation

Tougher rules are to be brought in for houses in multiple occupation (HMO) in North Lincolnshire.

The council has voted unanimously to force all HMOs, regardless of size, to go through the full planning process under Article 4 regulations, which will now apply to the whole area.

Previously, homes with six bedrooms or fewer could apply for a simplified certificate of lawfulness to allow development.

This allowed schemes to avoid being put before councillors or have public feedback.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a council meeting passed a motion of "zero tolerance" to HMOs not following planning regulations.

Labour group leader councillor Len Foster criticised HMO developers coming from outside North Lincolnshire to develop "properties for the exploitation of residents desperate for a roof over their heads".

Foster told the meeting of a 14-bedroom HMO in his ward which was "curtailed after a bit of a campaign", but a six-bed development could not be stopped.

"We all know we're in a low cost land area and we're being exploited," he said.

He also read out a recent estate agents' advertisement in Barton-upon-Humber which said: "This property is ripe for a conversion to a house of multiple occupancy."

Conservative council leader Rob Waltham called the motion "critically important".

"Many young people rely on HMOs as a means to get out of the family home for all sorts of reasons, so I don't want to demonise HMOs," he said.

But the change was "to provide extra scrutiny" of people developing such accommodation, he added,

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