MP urges council to take action over rise in HMOs

Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan is concerned by the "scale and speed" at which HMOs are being created

A council is being told to take urgent action over the "scale and speed" of houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) being permitted in a town in Kent.

Gillingham and Rainham's Naushabah Khan MP has written to Medway Council's chief planning officer, Dave Harris, to ask the authority to address the issue.

"We urgently need to tackle the significant increase of HMOs in Gillingham," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. "We're seeing is lots of properties, often terraced houses, very quickly getting turned into HMOs."

There are currently 255 properties across Medway registered as HMOs. The council has been contacted for comment.

Ms Khan said: "Gillingham has many significant challenges.

"If this type of property continues to appear with very limited control over what goes where, then we're going to be in a situation where we're not really able to build the social links we need and create the type of community we want to tackle some of those challenges."

Her letter to Mr Harris stated: "It is now vital that Medway Council addresses the lack of licensing directives with reference to this type of housing."

The MP has called for Medway Council to introduce an Article 4 direction, which would mean that all HMO applications would be considered by councillors on the planning committee, rather than being delegated to officers.

In a letter posted on social media, the MP also asked the council to create a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) that would offer more detailed rules about HMOs.