Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of rooms in houses of multiple occupancy available in (a) London and (b) England.

The Government recently launched a plan to crack down on antisocial behaviour, restoring people’s confidence that these crimes will be quickly and visibly punished. This plan includes a commitment to produce comprehensive guidance for landlords to ensure they understand the tools available to tackle and evidence anti-social behaviour.

Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) play an important role in the private rented sector and can provide relatively low-cost accommodation. Where there are problems with HMOs and anti-social behaviour, local authorities have powers to introduce HMO licence conditions which require landlords of licensable HMOs to take steps to prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour caused by tenants or visitors.

The department gathers data from local authorities on the estimated number of HMOs annually. The latest returns can be found here.