John Denham has welcomed the a new Government report on “studentification” and has criticised Southampton’s Conservative City Council for turning its back on the problem. 

Tomorrow John Denham will launch a consultation with residents of the Polygon area about a report published this week by the Department for Communities and Local Government: Evidence Gathering - Housing in Multiple Occupation and possible planning responses.  The Labour MP for Southampton Itchen also condemned the Conservative City Council for cutting the free student clean up at the end of the summer term which left local residents in the lurch.

John Denham has been campaigning on the problems caused by an over-concentration of HMOs since he was first elected in 1992 when he asked a Parliamentary Question on the matter.  

He said “Over the years I have often been frustrated by the unwillingness of too many people to accept that some towns and cities have a real problem.  I’m delighted that my constant lobbying and the formation of the all-party group I helped set up three years ago is now producing results.”

The Report sets out a number of ways to ways to help councils manage high concentrations of HMOs including new planning mechanisms and the widespread adoption of a number of the best common sense local solutions that can be easily adopted.  These include:

·     Preventing new enclaves by considering changes to the Use Classes Order planning rules allowing for HMOs to be brought under greater council control. This has already been adopted in Northern Ireland.

·     Capping and controlling the distribution and the dispersal of HMOs by using the local planning system to set up 'areas of restraint', which have been shown to help balance communities. Nottingham has already established a threshold of 25 per cent per neighbourhood.

·     Universities and student unions should develop housing and community strategies that include: community liaison officers; student codes of conduct; neighbourhood helplines; and use of authorised student accommodation agents to help protect students from bad tenancy deals. Many universities have already invested heavily in new student halls which could help ease pressures.

·     Councils should target resources such as refuse/letting board collections, street cleansing, fly posting controls at key times in the academic year; establish landlord accreditation schemes; link the demand with regeneration opportunities; work with universities to consider purpose built accommodation; and make better use of their HMO licensing and empty property powers.

John Denham continued “Students do bring significant economic benefits to Southampton and they make a large contribution to sustaining and regenerating communities. But an over concentration of HMOs can have a negative impact on the neighbourhood and local public services.   One of the areas most affected is the Polygon area of the Bargate Ward.  For the first time in a generation, Bargate now has a Conservative Councillor.  It is a pity that one of her first acts after being elected was to support the abolition of the free student clean-up service at the end of the summer term, leaving local residents to cope. I hope that she and her fellow Conservative Councillors will look at this policy again.”