BETTER HOMES, BALANCED COMMUNITIES (Southampton Liberal Democrats)

Southampton Liberal Democrats <info@southampton-libdems.org.uk>

BETTER HOMES, BALANCED COMMUNITIES

February 6, 2012 2:30 PM
By Southampton Liberal Democrats

Portswood Liberal Democrats have welcomed a draft Supplementary Planning policy on HMOs, while urging amendments to give it more teeth.

While welcoming students as valued contributors to our city, and recognising the need for Houses in Multiple Occupation for students and others, Lib Dems have for many years been concerned at the consequences for the character and balance of our neighbourhoods of excessive concentrations of HMOs.

Portswood Lib Dem campaigner Keith Reed says: 'We welcome a threshold of 10% for HMOs in Portswood. However we believe the threshold elsewhere in the city should be set at 15%, rather than the proposed 20% of properties, which is equivalent on average to 33% of residents.

It is essential that extensions and flats are included in the thresholds, and minimum, rather than maximum, parking provisions should apply.

Portswood Lib Dem Cllr Adrian Vinson adds: 'We want the Council to follow Oxford and introduce a new planning policy to set a cap on the numbers of students living in rented accommodation in the communities, and requiring the universities to provide additional purpose-built student accommodation as a condition of planning permission for any new developments which would increase student numbers. Hopefully such a policy would help bring down the level of private sector rents for everyone.

'We are also concerned at the poor quality and lack of upkeep of many of the Houses in Multiple Occupation in Southampton, especially those on offer to students. So we seek a commitment to introduce Additional Licensing for all HMOs to help ensure that properties are kept in better order and appearance for the benefit of tenants and neighbours alike.

At November's Council meeting Adrian urged that more be done to combat rogue landlords who undertake developments without planning permission, maintain properties in poor condition, provide accommodation which falls short of safety standardds, or withhold deposits from students and others on false grounds.