This week Housing and Planning Minister John Healey announced new local powers to control the spread of high concentrations of shared rented homes and to tackle pockets of unsafe and substandard accommodation run by bad landlords. This is great news for Brighton.

I have been campaigning for nearly two years on behalf of residents to tackle the problems caused by the concentration of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and over-development of homes in the Brighton Pavilion constituency. I am pleased that the Government has listened and taken the right action. You can read two of my previous letters in the Argus in 2008 and last year. Last year I met with John Healey and in 2008 I met his predecessor Caroline Flint to make the case of Brighton residents and students alike.

The new powers are good news for residents and for students who want to live in the community. It will enable and empower Brighton and Hove City Council to crack down on bad landlords who offer low quality accommodation to students and ensure we have more homes available for families.

It is exactly what I have been calling for and we now need the Council to rise to the challenge and use these powers to maintain mixed communities and keep a much-needed register of landlords so, if there are problems, tenants and residents have somewhere to turn.

Tags: hmos, Housing, landlords, students

Posted on January 28, 2010 in Housing.