Houses in Multiple Occupation: Planning Consent

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) for securing this important debate on HMOs. Concerns around access to safe, good-quality and genuinely affordable housing have consistently been raised with me throughout my time representing my constituency. It is the No. 1 casework issue in my inbox. As a consequence of rising demand for affordable housing, alongside a cost of living crisis and regulatory changes, it is more profitable for landlords to operate houses in multiple occupation, and we have seen a year-on-year increase of HMOs in many regions across the country.

As we have heard from many other Members today, HMOs present difficult issues for tenants and wider communities if they are not properly licensed or managed. For some tenants, that may mean substandard housing facilities, without adequate access to toilet, bathroom or cooking facilities, or appropriate fire safety precautions. There is also the wider community impact: parking shortages, increasing levels of rubbish due to poor waste disposal and, sadly, the demise of family homes, just when the demand for good-quality family homes is rising.

Many of these issues go under the radar of local authorities if they are not reported, although many authorities recognise these issues and have taken action under article 4 directions, which relate to the removal of permitted development rights for HMOs and require planning permission to be sought. These can be targeted, but they are often challenged by landlords. Can the Minister provide an update on how the Government might be able to support councils to invoke article 4 directions despite challenges, so that they can effectively monitor and manage the number of HMOs in their areas? Is there any further update on how to tackle unlicensed HMOs, ensuring that tenants are not being taken advantage of?

[Uma Kumaran (Stratford and Bow) (Lab)]

The Government are rightly increasing regulation on social housing landlords, but we know that we have dodgy landlords in the private sector who are flouting the rules. As things stand in my constituency and across east London, we know there are huge problems with unlicensed HMOs, which are causing people to live in unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Does my hon. Friend agree that we also need to give councils more powers to tackle the scourge of unlicensed HMOs?

[Rachel Hopkins]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that really important point about unlicensed HMOs, and I thoroughly agree.