Draft Regulation 18 Sandwell Local Plan

Justification

7.51 Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are defined as homes accommodating three or more unrelated households who typically share kitchens, lounges, and bathrooms.

7.52 HMOs are an increasingly popular part of the housing market within many parts of the Black Country. As rooms can be rented individually, they provide additional affordable accommodation options, used primarily by students, young people, and those on lower incomes.

7.53 Whilst the area's stock of HMOs is contributing to meeting housing needs, increased numbers of multiple occupancy properties have the potential to create harmful impacts. Concentrations of HMOs within neighbourhoods can lead to imbalanced and unsustainable communities and harm the social mix and fabric of the area by increasing the proportion of short-term households. They can damage the residential amenity and character of surrounding areas, as the level of activity associated with a HMO is significantly greater than a typical family house, thus increasing the potential for noise and disturbance.

7.54 Harmful impacts associated with high numbers of HMOs can include:

1. reduced social cohesion resulting from demographic imbalance and unsustainable communities;
2. reduced housing choice resulting from housing type / tenure imbalance (e.g., a shift from permanent family housing to more transient accommodation and a growth in the private sector at the expense of owner-occupation);
3. reduced community engagement from residents resulting from an increase in the transient population of an area;
4. noise and disturbance resulting from intensification of the residential use and / or the lifestyle of occupants;
5. detriment to the visual amenity and character of the area resulting from poor or accumulative external alterations to properties and / or poor waste management;
6. reduced community facilities resulting from a shift in the character of shops and businesses;
7. increased anti-social behaviour and fear of crime resulting from the lifestyles of some HMO occupants, the transient nature of the accommodation and inadequately designed / maintained properties;
8. highway safety concerns resulting from congested on-street parking.

7.55 Whilst this type of accommodation can address certain housing needs, HMOs tend to be grouped together in parts of the urban area, becoming the dominant type of housing, which can lead to social and environmental problems for local communities. Alongside this, an over-concentration of HMO properties can lead to a loss of family-sized units. This in turn can lead to a consequential increase in the overall number of units unsuited to family occupation. This can pose a serious issue for maintaining a mixed sustainable housing offer across the Black Country.

7.56 The Black Country HMA (2021) signalled that the greatest demand in the future will be for homes of three bedrooms or more. It is important, therefore, that an approach is taken to the creation of HMOs and the sub-division of existing properties that only allows those proposals that do not impact upon the overall supply of family-sized homes to be consented. In applying this policy, 'family-sized dwellings' means houses with three or more bedrooms.

7.57 In determining the concentration of HMOs surrounding the application site, it is calculated as a percentage of the total number of residential properties. HMOs should not form over 10% of the number of residential properties within a 100-metre radius. Any application that would result in a higher figure e.g., 10.04% would be refused.

7.58 Planning permission will not be granted where the introduction of a new HMO would result in an existing C3 dwelling being 'sandwiched' by any adjoining HMOs or non-family residential uses on both sides. In the context of the policy, this is defined as:

1. Up to three single residential properties in a street located between two individual HMO properties;
2. Individual HMO properties in any two of the following locations: adjacent, opposite or to the rear of a single residential property;
3. A residential flat in a building where most of the other flats are proposed for use as HMOs;
4. A residential flat within a building located between two other sub-divided buildings with at least one HMO flat in each of the other building;
5. A residential flat located between HMOs above and below or between HMO flats on either side.

7.59 This would not apply where the properties are separated by an intersecting road or where properties have a back-to-back relationship in different streets. Planning permission would also not be granted where it would result in a continuous frontage of three or more HMOs or non-family residential uses

7.60 In situations where properties are not traditional houses situated along a street frontage, the policy can be applied flexibly depending on the individual circumstances of the proposal.

Exceptional circumstances

7.61 In some areas, the concentration of HMOs in an area may be at such a high level that the introduction of a new HMO use would be difficult to resist. In these circumstances the retention of a property as a family dwelling would have little noticeable or meaningful effect on the balance and mix of households in a community already dominated by the proportion of existing HMOs. Therefore, the conversion of remaining buildings to a HMO could not harm the character of the surrounding area any further.