City plans crackdown on 'HMO sandwiches'

Liverpool City Council wants to stop houses of multiple occupancy "sandwiching" residential homes

City leaders are planning to create new powers to prevent people's homes from becoming the filling in "HMO sandwiches".

Liverpool City Council wants to stop houses of multiple occupancy opening on either side of residential properties.

A report to go before councillors on Wednesday says the local authority plans to "build on the existing adopted policy by also introducing a sandwiching approach to restrict consent being granted where a non-HMO dwelling would be sandwiched between two HMOs".

The council said it intended to create a quota system where no more than 10% of residential properties in any city ward can be converted into HMOs.

'Deprived communities'

HMOs are properties that include three or more people not from the same household, but who share facilities like bathrooms and kitchens.

To tackle rough sleeping and a shortage in temporary accommodation, Liverpool City Council recently announced plans to house homeless people in HMOs.

Council leader Liam Robison told BBC Radio Merseyside in July that there needed to be "an appropriate spread" of HMOs across the city and that "it cannot be solely in the most deprived communities, because that's not fair".

The council will use its Local Plan - its blueprint for future development - to introduce the planning and licensing changes.

Liberal group leader Steve Radford said the changes were "overdue".

He said his Tuebrook ward had seen "a concentration of HMOs in particular locations that has led to a real sense of insecurity and has had an impact on house prices".