Houses of multiple occupancy could be banned

Bath city centre has a shortage of affordable family homes

New rules in a heritage city could mean houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) will be banned in the future.

HMOs are houses where groups of unrelated adults live, often students, single people, professionals, or low-income workers.

Councillors at Bath and North East Somerset Council have warned there is a shortage of affordable homes for families and want to protect three-bedroom "family homes" in the city.

Matt McCabe, the council's cabinet member for built environment, housing, and sustainable development, said: "If an affordable home is converted to an HMO, we can't replace it. There is nowhere in the city now to build houses. We have got to stop the loss of this housing stock."

The proposals are part of the council's new local plan which goes out to public consultation from the 3 October to 14 November according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The local plan is a major document that sets out the council's planning policies and where new developments should go until 2043.

The council last tried to limit HMOs in 2022, when it adopted a policy designed to prevent areas having too many but it said this has just pushed the problem into the wider city, where housing was more affordable so exacerbated the problem.

The new proposed rule would ban three-bedroom homes of a defined size from being converted into HMOs and it could either be applied citywide or only in the most affordable areas.