The conversion of a property into an eight-room house in multiple occupation (HMO) to accommodate 16 people is among five such applications dealt with in Brent this week.
The North London borough has refused four applications for HMOs in the past few days with a fifth yet to be decided amid calls to pause all HMO approvals locally.
With HMOs in the private rental sector increasingly being used to address a shortfall in social housing, many London councils are looking to introduce tougher rules to drive up standards and make them safer, as well as controlling how many family-sized homes are lost.
Earlier this month, Brent Council introduced a new licensing scheme for smaller HMOs with fewer than five tenants – to go alongside the existing requirement for all larger HMO landlords to be licenced. This was due to evidence that a significant number of this type of housing are “still substandard and potentially dangerous”, according to the local authority.
The rapid growth of HMOs across the capital is unpopular with many local residents, with concerns that their influx leads to reduced numbers of family-sized homes, increased antisocial behaviour, and imbalanced communities.
The applications dealt with in Brent this week are as follows:
17 Crawford Avenue, Wembley – refused
Plans to extend and convert a two-storey semi-detached home in Wembley into an eight-bed, 16 person HMO has been refused. The application was looking to demolish a side garage, shed and store, and erect a two storey side and part first floor rear extension to the Crawford Avenue property.
All proposed eight bedrooms were slightly more than the 12.5sqm required but fell below the minimum requirement for communal space. Guidelines show that the HMO would need to provide a minimum of 80sqm, however the open plan kitchen and dining room would only be 41.7sqm – fractionally over half what is recommended.
Whilst the HMO “would not result in an over-concentration” within the area, council officers determined that it “would fail to meet an appropriate standard of accommodation” for future tenants and refused the scheme.
It was also determined that it “would likely result in harm to a protected tree” and failed to adequately address transport and cycle parking requirements.
11 Artisan Quarter, Wellington Road – refused
A plan to change the use of a property at Artisan Quarter in St John’s Wood received 20 objections from local residents, who claimed that a history of HMOs within the development had “caused a lot of issues over the years”.
The Wellington Road property forms one of 25 live-work units within a gated estate. One objector wrote: “[…] the amenity of neighbouring residents would be significantly harmed. Artisan Quarter was designed for single-household live-work use, and the introduction of an HMO would likely lead to increased noise, comings and goings, and disturbance.”
Alongside the loss of a live-work unit, council officers determined that the HMO would “not offer an acceptable quality of accommodation” as the proposals failed to comply with standards. They refused planning permission.
The report stated that the communal areas and bedrooms “do not appear adequately equipped with furniture”, which included no beds and no furniture in the kitchen. It was also found that the communal area would not meet “the required 25sqm minimum standard”.
62 Rucklidge Avenue, Harlesden – refused
The Rucklidge Avenue building currently comprises six self-contained flats, with plans put forward to convert one of them into a seven-bed, 11 person HMO. The proposal received three objections from local residents and was also refused for not offering “an acceptable quality of accommodation”.
A council officer wrote: “The bedrooms appear adequately equipped with furniture. However, an HMO of this size would require a minimum of 55sqm of communal internal amenity space and the proposal falls significantly short of this with the proposed 30.86sqm communal internal amenity area. Additionally, the seating and dining facilities fall short for the number of occupants proposed.”
7 Monks Park Gardens, Wembley – refused
Plans to convert another two-storey semi-detached house in Wembley into a five-bedroom, six-person HMO have also been refused. Officers cited “substandard quality of accommodation” for any future residents as the reason for refusal, which included compromised privacy in one of the bedrooms, while bedroom five would be undersized.
The report adds: “The proposal has failed to demonstrate that sufficient internal communal amenity space would be provided and that suitably sized and sufficient furniture would be provided for all future occupants to congregate in one sitting. […] the kitchen would be undersized and fail to provide sufficient facilities, [including the] absence of washing and drying facilities.”
48A Neasden Lane, Neasden – to be decided
One application that has been received this week but not yet determined is for the proposed conversion of a ground floor flat on Neasden Lane into a two-bedroom four-person HMO. The property is a terraced house that has been converted into two flats, with the ground-floor property consisting of the two-bedrooms, a bathroom and open plan kitchen, dining and living area.
The change of use plan also includes internal alterations, which the developer states will “provide sufficient space for two ensuite double bedrooms” for the four occupants, as well as an enlarged shared kitchen with two sets of kitchen facilities.
The application claims that the development would “not fall under concentration of accommodation as four of the nearest ten properties have a HMO licence”. The proposal also outlines plans for cycle parking space in a lockable enclosure at the front of the garden for four bikes. Council officers will review the application before making a decision.
Call for HMO approvals to be paused
Brent Council claims the previous licensing scheme helped it “improve standards and management practices” of many HMOs across the borough but there are still a “significant number” that pose a risk to residents.
Its enforcement team has been cracking down on HMOs that breach housing regulations and achieved a number of convictions for rogue landlords who have been flouting the rules. This includes enforcement against two brothers who crammed 15 tenants into an unlicensed seven-bed property in Kenton.
Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Fleur Donnelly-Jackson, said: “Everyone deserves to live in a safe, secure and well-maintained home. […] Landlords operating without a licence are breaking the law. Our enforcement team is actively working across the borough, using intelligence-led investigations and data analysis to identify those who are failing to comply.”
However, some are calling for a complete pause of HMO approvals in the borough until a full review of licensing and enforcement is complete. The Brent Liberal Democrats claim HMOs are “increasingly concentrated in certain neighbourhoods”, which puts pressure on local services and “community cohesion”.
The group say HMOs contribute disproportionately to fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour, with trust in councils being undermined as residents “feel ignored when they report issues”. They suggest a pause would allow councils “to focus resources on fixing existing problems rather than expanding them”.
Grant Williams is a journalist and Local Democracy Reporter (LDR) for Reach PLC, reporting on local government, politics and community issues across London. As part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he has contributed to Harrow Online, covering council decisions, housing developments, transport, planning matters and stories affecting local communities across Harrow and Brent.
