Campaigners against opening more shared homes for students in a university city have lost two major planning battles.
Leeds planners were lobbied by Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland, the Leeds HMO Lobby and local councillor Martin Hamilton to vote against the developments, but rejected their complaints.
Both developments were for large houses in multiple occupation - with six or more tenants sharing cooking and washing facilities - which demand planning permission and HMO licensing from the local council.
Leeds City Council is at the forefront of taking on extra powers to limit the number of shared houses and holds the record for prosecuting the most landlords for flouting HMO licensing rules.
However, permission was granted for two new HMOS -
● The conversion of a former crisis centre for the mentally ill which will become a 12-bed HMO
● A former children’s home due for conversion in to a seven bed HMO
Objections covered a range of issues, from insufficient parking to a potential increase in anti-social behaviour.
However, the city council planning committee was told the crisis centre was unlikely to become a family home and switching use to an HMO was better for the neighbourhood than letting the property stand empty.
Residents suggested the former children’s home should be converted to three family flats, which was the property use before the children’s home opened.
The meeting heard that councillors could only consider the proposal from the developer. The vote in favour of the HMO was carried by 4 to 3.
“The panel’s main concern was that it could cost Leeds City Council lots of money to defend their decision not to approve a HMO,” resident Lee Ingham, who lives opposite the children’s home development, wrote to a local paper.
“For our street, the plans panel’s decision to approve the HMO, has made Leeds a worst city. Our street will keep plugging away at making Leeds a better place to live. It would be good if the plans panel could do its bit.”
