Today was Elise Benjamin’s first full council as Lord Mayor and thus chair of the meeting.  It was not too long a meeting and had the normal political gesturing and grandstanding.  Following some actual and anecdotal evidence about a worrying trend of landlords pulling out of the HMO market, I made the following statement on notice:

“Lord Mayor, I want to make a brief statement about the implementation of new additional HMO licensing scheme. While I recognise and fully support the vital work of holding landlords to account and ensuring adequate and safe conditions for tenants I do want to sound a note of caution about discouraging landlords to stay in the HMO market.

Oxford is a lively and vibrant City and has a large population of young people trying to make their way after School, College or University.  Housing is scarce and expensive and living in HMOs is the only way many such people can afford to stay in Oxford.  I have seen one example (next to my own home) and heard of others where I wonder if perhaps this council is requiring more work than is strictly necessary on properties that are being used as-built (i. e. with no extra bedrooms or partitions, or rooms being used as bedrooms that were intended for other use), and to modern building regulations standards. While I of course understand the duty of care the council has to HMO-residents I hope that will be kept in balance with the need to maintain a supply of HMOs for those who are not able to afford to live in our wonderful City of Oxford any other way. Our City’s economy is strong and healthy and this is due in no small part to the number of skilled professionals that live here.  I would hate to get into a position where they can no longer afford to live in Oxford because too many landlords have chosen to leave the HMO market.

It is a delicate balance and I certainly have no sympathy for landlords that don’t look after their properties ensuring they are safe for their tenants, nor for tenants who engage in antisocial behaviour.   On the other hand I don’t want to see tenants who are responsible members of the community who do not keep neighbours awake, do not have loud parties, do not abuse parking and properly manage their refuse and recycling to be the unintentional victims of a licensing regime that is meant to protect them, not drive their landlords out of the rental market and therefore them out of their homes.

I am grateful to officers for taking the time to discuss this issue with me in the last week or so and grateful for all the excellent work they are doing in bringing Oxford HMO stock up to a good and safe standard.  I also welcome the fact that the council has taken my comments on board and I’m sure officers will bear them in mind when making future assessments of works required to recently-built and/or non-overcrowded residential dwellings.  I will be asking the portfolio member for housing for an update in a question to council later in the year on progress in this important and delicately-balanced area.

Thank you”

Cllr Ed Turner gave me a constructive reply on behalf of the administration and I do hope the administration will make sure the HMO policy is applied in a sensible way in future – Oxford cannot afford to lose all its HMO stock.