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Council Core Strategy Consultation
Response from Winton Community Forum
The following letter has been
sent to Bournemouth Borough Council by Patrick Oakley, the Forum's
HMO Committee Chair.
July 2010
Dear Sir,
I am writing in response to the
Core Strategy Consultation on behalf of Winton Forum.
In Winton and its surrounding areas we have a situation
that is destroying our local community. Huge swathes of family
housing have been taken over by various landlords and rented to
University and Arts Institute Students. No one has anything against
students, in person or in principal, but this takeover has reached
an unprecedented level. People who have lived in the area all
their lives are selling up and moving away. Winton East housing
is now 12.89% student Houses of Multiple Occupation. Extend this
statistic and the population of Winton is 25% transient University
Student. Many of the surrounding wards also have student HMOs
at saturation levels. With this level of occupation, even if only
a small percentage of students exhibit unsocial behaviour, it
can make life unbearable for many residents. Student HMO Saturation
has made our local community unsustainable.
Up until recently there has been little our council
could do to redress student HMO saturation. The outgoing Labour
government introduced legislation but this was quickly rescinded
by the coalition government. The new government is currently in
a 'Snap Consultation' to review how best to legislate control
of Student HMOs. The Minister, Grant Shapps has requested responses
from all interested parties. The problem of student HMO saturation
is not unique to Bournemouth as many other University towns and
cities suffer similar problems. Nottingham Council and others
have sent their responses to the Minister; Bournemouth Council
has yet to respond.
Whatever legislation is eventually introduced we
can presume there will be opportunity for our local council to
determine local policy. The new policy will of course, need to
be self financing. A licencing system is required that will both
effectively hold landlords to account for the unsocial behaviour
of the people renting their property and for the landlord to be
responsible for the upkeep and general appearance of the property.
Failure to meet reasonable standards in a reasonable time must
result in the cancelling of the landlords Licence. Landlords are
making huge amounts of money from rents and a Licence fee of £500
per property would not be unreasonable or financially inhibitive.
The minimum rent for a room is £75; most houses have been
arranged into five or six bedrooms. Problem landlords will only
respond to the threat of losing their income.
Some years ago legislation was passed intended to allow Universities
to build and manage Halls of Residences for their students without
having to comply with local government HMO regulation. Bournemouth
University has since extended this to include private residential
property, for which the original legislation was never intended.
At the present moment anyone can hand over their property to the
University Letting service without recourse to any legislation
or licencing. However affective the expected new legislation will
be, it will be easy to circumvent just by letting the property
through the University! This would make any HMO legislation meaningless.
Halls of Residence are a completely different subject to private
residential houses. LIcencing of Private Residential Property
must equally apply to the university letting agency as to other
landlords. The University is making a great deal of money from
its letting agency, hundreds of residential properties are involved,
why should they be treated differently to other landlords? There
is no community tax income to the council from student HMOs. This
farcical situation must not be allowed to continue.
Within the Core Strategy Consultation Document,
on pages fifty-nine paragraph 4.96 it states "Parts of Winton
have become a focus for student let housing….this has led
to some local tensions. To redress this it is intended to introduce
a local policy to restrict further proliferation of student lets
in roads where there are currently associated problems".
On page sixty of the document there is a map of Winton which shows
a circled area around Winton Banks. Neither, the statement on
page fifty-nine, or the diagram on page sixty, represent the true
area of student HMO saturation that is causing "local tensions".
A more realistic area of student saturation would
run north to Malvern Rd, South to the Wessex Way, West to Howard
Rd and East to Kinson Rd. All of Winton, Wallisdown, and Charminster"suffer
local tensions because of student HMO saturation". Cardigan
Rd, which does not come within the highlighted area of the diagram,
has thirty-eight houses out of seventy-six houses let to students.
The perceived area of difficulty is nowhere near representing
the true situation. There is not only a need to stop any further
proliferation but steps must be taken to claim back housing for
local people.
In its present form The Core Strategy fails to accurately
identify the scale of the problem or provide affective solutions
to correct it.
I repeat what I have said, that I am not and Winton
Forum is not anti-student, we just know the present situation
has gone too far. It is time to reverse the studentification of
Winton and its surrounding wards and give local people the power
to protect their quality of life and their communities.
Should you require any clarification of the points I have raised
please do not hesitate to contact me.
For your information, in the attached pack you will
find;
1. Student HMO Statistics by Ward.
2. Present HMO application Document.
3. Community Feedback from Winton Forum Message Board.
4. Pages 59 and 60 of the Core Strategy Consultation Document.
5. Response from the National HMO Lobby to the Governments Snap
Consultation
Patrick Oakley
Winton Forum
Chair of HMO Committee
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