The leader of Mansfield District Council has blasted ‘misinformation’ after one of the town’s streets was named the worst in the country for HMOs.
And Executive Mayor Andy Abrahams has vowed to go one further – telling his staff to work out just how many HMOs there are in the town to prove cynics wrong.
Mansfield mayor Andy Abrahams is pleased a solution to the issue has been reached. Photo: Submitted
Princes Street in Mansfield was branded “HMO Street” by a resident after reports of “parking hell” and overflowing bins.
The high proportion of the street’s house-shares was first reported in August after a conversation between the Local Democracy Reporting Service and Mansfield MP Steve Yemm.
The Labour politician has also talked at length in parliament and on television about the concentration of HMOs across his constituency and how people had “lost their say on what happens on their own street.”
And he called for an investigation into whether making it more difficult for developers to create HMOs – through legislation known as an Article 4 direction – was necessary.
On Thursday Coun Abrahams addressed the issue through a video on Facebook, saying: “There’s been some recent publications in national papers and online that’s totally misrepresenting our town. Mansfield is not the worst place in the country for HMOs.
“We take these concerns really seriously so now I’m instructing our staff to undertake a proper, evidence-based exercise so we know the facts about Mansfield, we know the hotspot areas and then we can formulate a plan on whether Article 4 can be implemented.”
Article 4 is a statutory power that a local council can use to stem the ease at which properties can be turned into HMOs.
It works by requiring developers or landlords to apply for permission to convert a house into an HMO of any size.
Currently, they only have to apply for permission if it will contain more than five bedrooms.
But bringing in an Article 4 direction is often a costly, lengthy process, with data and evidence having to be gathered first to prove it’s necessary.
The Mayor continued: “We are trying to promote Mansfield. We’ve got the regeneration of a generation. And this misinformation about our town is really damaging.
“In cities and towns across the country, young professionals, people that work in our health services, rely on accommodation in towns that are labelled HMOs.
“The HMO word has become something that is really used in a massively negative sense. HMOs do have a valuable part to play in our housing strategy – not just in Mansfield, across the whole of the country.”
The number of HMOs with three and four bedrooms is not tracked meaning the total number on Princes Street cannot be confirmed.
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