Peterborough to trial stricter rules for landlords around small house shares in Hampton Vale, Fletton and Woodston

New rules requiring landlords to apply for planning permission before converting single homes into house shares will be trialled in three Peterborough neighbourhoods.

Hampton Vale, Fletton and Woodston and part of Park Ward will be involved in the trial which will see the rules applied to small HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) from 24 February to 19 May.

HMOs are properties rented out by at least three people who are not from the same household.

Large HMOs, occupied by six or more people, already require planning permission from Peterborough City Council (PCC).

The rules would bring those with fewer than six people in line with these requirements after what the council called a “proliferation of uncontrolled small HMOs”.

The trial follows a PCC resolution to investigate the issue with a view to implementing the new rules.

This was followed by “independent evidence” being prepared, PCC says, which was “not considered to be conclusive” and as such the council’s Cabinet resolved to implement it in three pilot areas to assess its effectiveness.

Landlords and new university to be consulted

Landlords and the new ARU Peterborough university should also be consulted during the trial, a PCC report on the issue says, as so far evidence-gathering has “focussed on the residents’ concerns” but not engaged with these other parties.

The report, presented to the Cabinet this week, also noted that the “poorest residents could be disproportionately affected” by the new rules as it “places restrictions on the availability of cheaper housing” which could spell higher rents.

But, on the other hand, if housing quality improves, this would benefit the same residents and support their health and wellbeing, the report adds.

Possible impacts such as these will remain under review throughout the trial.

But what about the rest of Peterborough?

Bretton, Hargate and Hempstead, Park Ward and Central Ward were all also submitted by their respective councillors to take part in the trial, but discounted because of a lack of a “compelling evidential basis”.

Their combined area, alongside that wards that were chosen, would also have made up around half of Peterborough, meaning small HMOs would simply migrate to the other half, PCC added.

At the latest meeting PCC Cabinet meeting, Cllr Steve Allen (Conservatives) asked if the rules could be applied retrospectively as the problems associated with uncontrolled small HMOs are “not unique” to the areas where the trial will be held and in some cases “ongoing”.

Jim Newton, a PCC planning and building assistant director, responded that once a HMO is lawful in planning terms it remains so, but the rules change would mean that a landlord could not convert a house back and forth between a single home and a HMO without permission.

The Cabinet endorsed the trial, but whether the new rules are implemented throughout Peterborough or even in Hampton Vale, Fletton and Woodston and Park permanently remains to be seen.

This is not just because the trial has not yet concluded, but because - even if deemed successful - permission for the rules to be fully implemented must first be sought from central Government.