South Tyneside residents raise alarm as they link HMOs with more anti-social behaviour

The Housing Act 2004 provides the definition of a HMO, which is essentially an entire house, building or flat which is let to three or more tenants who form two or more households and who share at least a kitchen, bathroom or toilet.

HMOs can provide various different uses including student accommodation, shared houses and supported accommodation.

A presentation from South Tyneside Council on the issue went before the latest meeting of Riverside Community Area Forum (CAF), with concerns raised by councillors and residents around the number of HMOs in the Beach Road area.

Councillor David Francis, Green Group leader, speaking at the meeting at South Shields Town Hall, said: “It’s really important to understand the complexities of the situation we’re trying to deal with here.

“It’s easy to point the finger at HMOs and sometimes they can be fine, it does fill a gap in the housing market.

“I know it does work in some places, but of course there are places where it really doesn’t work, and we know there is one of them just outside that window [Beach Road].”

A resident speaking at the meeting said there was a “correlation” between HMOs and anti-social behaviour in the Beach Road area, adding he has lived in the street for three years and has to report incidents “on a very regular basis.”

Anna Milner, council senior manager for strategic housing and regulation, noted they have seen an increase in demand for single person accommodation in the borough, which can be supported in part through HMOs.

She said: “This is because we’re seeing a splitting of households, a number of our homeless cases that come through the service are often due to social issues, things like relationship breakdowns.

“Affordability is a big issue, particularly if you’re a single household, particularly if you’re under 35 and you get a lower level of housing benefit or Universal Credit.

“Often renting a room from a HMO sometimes is the only option likely available for those individuals.”

Officers also provided information on the process for gaining permission to convert a property into a HMO.

Planning permission is needed to turn a property into a HMO accommodating more than six residents, but it is not needed to turn an existing house into a HMO housing six or less residents, as this is classed as permitted development.

However this is not the case in the Lawe Top area, where permitted development rights were withdrawn by an Article 4 Direction – meaning all new HMOs need planning permission in that area.

Officers noted in the emerging South Tyneside local plan, which has been submitted to the Secretary of State for examination in public, two additional steps are included to help tackle the issue.

This includes measures to prevent any residential property being directly ‘sandwiched’ between two HMO’s on both sides.

It also states in the Article 4 area, permission should only be granted where the number of HMO dwellings does not exceed 10% of the total number of properties within 100 metres.

Additionally an update was given at the meeting on the number of planning applications for new HMOs determined in the Riverside CAF area in the past five years.

Officers explained 12 applications had been determined, two of which were for the same address.

Nine of them were approved and two were refused, one of which was allowed on appeal, while one application was allowed via a non-determination appeal.

Five applications were within the Article 4 area, however all needed permission irrespective of the direction due to the sizes of the HMOs proposed.

Officers stressed during the planning application process the suitability of the location, highway and car parking impacts, room sizes, residential amenity and crime and fear of crime are all issues which are considered.

Meanwhile most HMOs also need a licence to operate, with the process for this entirely separate to the planning process.