Greenwich Council’s plans to clamp down on family homes being split into rented rooms “lack teeth”, according to the borough’s Conservatives.
The council has proposed tightening rules on when it will allow homes of multiple occupation (HMOs) in its draft Local Plan, which residents can now comment on.
All councils must have a local plan, which sets out the kind of development they want in their areas. Councils have little leeway to stop HMO conversions under planning law, but they can set out their own restrictions in local plans.
At present HMOs are clustered around Deptford, west Greenwich and the Greenwich Peninsula as well as along the A206 in east Greenwich and Charlton, and in the Plumstead area. Some of the HMOs even include dividing up flats in recently-built developments.
In Greenwich, the last plan was implemented in 2014 and did not feature any curbs on HMOs, often rendering councillors powerless to stop the conversions. Under national planning laws, they are “permitted development”, giving councils limited room for manoeuvre.
After the number of applications began to grow, in 2017 Greenwich implemented a direction forcing landlords to apply for permission for each conversion, meaning each new HMO has to be scrutinised, even if councillors have little room to throw the applications out under law.
For the next plan, restrictions are planned in wards across the north of the borough where more than one in 50 properties have already been converted — Plumstead & Glyndon, Greenwich Peninsula, East Greenwich, Charlton Village & Riverside, and Greenwich Creekside — if it can be shown they would lead to an “overconcentration” of HMOs.
“Overconcentration” is defined as more than two HMOs side by side; the sandwiching of a single self-contained house or flat between two HMOs; more than two HMOs within a run of ten properties on one side of the road; or more than one HMO in a road of fewer than ten properties.
But the plans are weaker in the rest of the borough, even though there has been controversy over plans for HMOs in Abbey Wood, Plumstead Common, Shooters Hill and Eltham in recent months, and a rise in applications more generally.
There, the new plan proposes only allowing homes to be divided into HMOs if the building has floorspace of more than 90 square metres (969 square feet) – about the size of a two-bedroom house – or had it before extensions were added. This is smaller than the 130 square metres (1,400 square feet) outlined in Lewisham’s new plan, which came into force in the summer.
In addition, the proposed HMO would have to be either in a controlled parking zone, in which case tenants would be banned from having permits, or be an area without parking difficulties. They would also have to provide cycle parking, “adequate indoor communal space” and not detract from the character of the area.
Residents can have their say on the proposals in a consultation which is open until February 8, although it will be some time before the new plan comes into force as a public hearing will need to take place and an inspector will have to review it. The council is also inviting residents to a “community assembly” at Woolwich Works on February 7, which it says will help shape the new plan.
Charlie Davis, a Conservative councillor for Eltham Town & Avery Hill, said at a council meeting last month that he had recently spoken at a planning committee against one HMO that would be opposite another one in a cul-de-sac in Eltham. The proposal was approved, and would still be approved under the proposed restrictions, he said.
The Tory deputy leader told The Greenwich Wire this week that the Labour council had broken a pledge to tackle the loss of family homes to HMOs.
“The policy lacks the teeth to truly tackle the growing loss of family homes,” Davis said. “Whilst we support the idea of minimum size to be considered for conversion, the size chosen by Greenwich will do nothing to slow down a trend which is changing communities across the borough. The attempts to tackle over-concentration lack the teeth and will to make an actual difference to residents’ lives.
“We believe these plans need to be bolder. A minimum size closer to 140 square metres than 90 square metres and addressing over-concentration at community rather than ward level will start to make a difference. We need to live in the real world with residents and make sure their concerns are addressed in this vital document.
“And let’s be honest, if we want to protect our family homes, we need to acknowledge the trade-off that we must also build more housing on brownfield sites and embrace gentle density in our town centres to do our bit to tackle the housing crisis.”
Anthony Okereke, the council leader, insisted that the plans would target homes of fewer than three bedrooms, although this is not made explicit in the proposals, which set a 90-square metre threshold.
He said: “HMOs can help tackle housing pressures and make it more affordable for people to live in our borough. But where there are pros, there are cons, and better, firmer regulation is needed to ensure that our borough and its existing housing stock isn’t taken advantage of by those who only want to profit at the detriment of hard-working residents.
“Our draft Local Plan proposes changes to the way HMO applications are handled to make it more difficult to convert family-sized properties to HMO. Subject to approval, only properties that were originally three-bed plus will be considered as this will stop landlords or developers from extending properties for the purpose of converting to HMO.
“We also share the concern many residents have of overconcentration of HMOs, which is why, under the plans, we will not approve applications in areas where there are more than two HMOs side by side, more than two HMOs within a run of ten properties on one side of the road, or more than one HMO in a road of fewer than ten properties.”
Okereke encouraged residents to apply for the community assembly and to take part in the Local Plan consultation.
“Our plans are bold and we know we can’t do it alone,” he said. “That’s why we want to hear from as many people as possible, because no one knows the borough better than the people who call it home. We want to build nearly 45,000 new homes and create thousands of jobs – that’s not a small feat, so we want to know how you think we can do that.”
The full Local Plan and a summary are on the council website. Residents can sign up for the Local Plan community assembly on the Commonplace website, while the consultation is open until February 8.
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