Urban renewal chiefs back 'house of multiple occupation' action plan
Halton Borough Council is to try to find out the scale of HMOs in the borough and looking to ways of shoring up standards.
West Bank is to form a focus of efforts to understand the scale of HMOs in Halton and blocking planning exemptions for HMO conversions. (Google Earth)
Door-to-door enquiries are to take place to work out how many “houses of multiple occupation” (HMOs) are in Halton.
The survey is part of an action plan approved by urban renewal chiefs at Runcorn Town Hall on Wednesday, February 15, aimed at ensuring standards of accommodation.
Halton Borough Council established a working party to examine the issue of HMOs in Widnes and Runcorn in September.
A report published ahead of the meeting said that under the action plan, the authority will consider applying for an “Article 4” rule for West Bank in Widnes, which would mean developers need full planning permission for HMOs instead of the more streamlined “permitted development” process with limited grounds for refusal.
The report said Halton Council will need to provide evidence to show an area needs an Article 4 exemption.
As a result door-to-door enquiries are to take place in West Bank and Frederick Street, and town hall officials will also examine the “clustering of HMOs at Frederick Street”.
West Bank will also be subject to a “detailed survey” to find out how many HMOs are in the area.
The council has also drafted a “‘property standards for HMOs” document, and is to look into the options for additional licensing, as well as collecting ward level information for what the report referred to as “housing related stressors, including antisocial behaviour (ASB), crime, deprivation, and population changes including migration linked to the private rented sector in general and houses in multiple occupation specifically”.
Under existing rules, only HMOs with five or more bedrooms need a licence.
“Hazard” levels are to be assessed as part of the action plan, and Inspector Thomas Hall from Widnes Local Policing Unit is to be invited to speak to the working party about antisocial behaviour.
Other steps being considered include restricting the “sandwiching” of properties between HMOs, and restricting the numbers of three or more HMOs, and establishing “explicit criteria to protect the amenity of neighbours”.
Moves to establish a working party coincided with the council’s appeal and subsequent defeat in November over a plan to convert the former Cartref care home on Derby Road in Farnworth into three adjoining HMOs with 29 bedrooms including six self-contained flats.
Read more news from Widnes, Cheshire, here.
