Labour councillors have secured a significant victory in their effort to halt the rapid rise in houses of multiple occupation (HMOs), across County Durham.
Shadow Cabinet member for Housing, Cllr Kevin Shaw, recently called on Durham County Council to introduce planning controls to manage the increasing impact of Tory Government policy, that threatens to create an unsustainable rise in HMOs.
Cllr Shaw and fellow Labour councillors took another step towards addressing the problem by winning a Full Council vote to halt the authority’s new Housing Strategy, which includes nothing about implementing measures to tackle the issue of HMOs.
Cllr Shaw said:
“HMOs can have such a negative impact on our communities and are an unsustainable burden to local services. To not even acknowledge that or make any provision whatsoever to try and address it in this proposed County Council Housing Strategy is a complete dereliction of duty. Members who voted to continue the unabated increase with no thoughts for our communities and our people will be remembered for this.
“It’s been an issue in Durham City for years, so we’re well versed in the problems they cause, but the former Government’s policy on creating more HMOs means they are increasingly becoming an issue across the wider county; particularly where housing is relatively cheap.
“To wait so long – watching in horror as social housing waiting lists grow ever longer – for this chaotic Coalition to finally bring forward a Housing Strategy and for it to fail to recognise one of the most pressing issues we face in meeting our housing shortage is quite incredible. Labour takes no pleasure at all in halting the progress of the Housing Strategy, but we cannot let this be waved through Council without addressing issues associated with HMOs.”
“The Tory-led Coalition running Durham County Council has completely failed on housing – not one single property of the 500 houses in the five-year Council House Build Programme, inherited by the Coalition in 2021, has been built. The Coalition has tried to pull the wool over peoples’ eyes by taking over homes already built and using these to reduce the promised 500, but we need far more than managing properties already in the system. The Council must build more to reduce the massive overall shortage on homes.”
Before losing control of the Council, Labour introduced a Selective Licensing Scheme, which helps address resident concerns about the private rented sector, but an increase in landlords letting HMOs in these areas will further impact amenities and increase demand on services decimated by 14 years of Tory cuts.
Cllr Shaw added:
“We need Durham County Council to introduce supplementary planning regulations and oversight to control the location and number of HMOs. It must urgently consider the legality of introducing tighter conditions.
“The fact the Coalition tried to force this strategy through knowing it offered nothing to deal with the impact of HMOs is shameful and another example of it caring more about fulfilling previous Tory Government policy than looking at the needs of people in County Durham. In the meantime, they can carry on using the award-winning Housing Strategy they inherited from Labour.”