Agenda and minutes

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive detailing the Council’s approach to planning enforcement, attached.

The Panel considered the report of the Assistant Chief Executive detailing the Council’s approach to planning enforcement.

Cllr Letts was in attendance and gave an overview of the matters that the Scrutiny Panel were considering.

With regards to permitted development rights, clarity had been sought with regards to HMOs and whether they were included, and Government had confirmed that they were.  Which meant that it would be possible for every HMO to increase in size within the new guideline on permitted development.  There were concerns that this could have an impact on the desire for balanced neighbourhoods.

The HMO registration scheme was in place in 4 pilot areas and there was the possibility of expanding the scheme to other areas within the City.

Concerns in relation to the current Article 4 which treated parts of the City differently with regards to the percentage for HMOs.  It was questioned as to whether there needed to be consistency across the City.

There was a need for appropriate accommodation to meet the needs of the population in the City, which included students and young working people.  This need would also be driven by the changes to the benefits system.  Purpose build accommodation for students would be encouraged.

Cllr Blatchford, Chair of the Planning and Rights of Way Panel was also in attendance and briefly outlined the experiences of the Panel Members and the issues relating to HMOs and planning enforcement.

Chris Lyons explained that the Council had challenged whether HMOs had permitted development rights, but the Government have now confirmed their position and that of the Planning Inspectorate and the rights do apply to HMOs.

He explained that the historical issues relating to planning enforcement were being addressed.  There had been a restructure within the department and now Planning and Enforcement were part of the same team which he was responsible for.  The links with Legal Services had also been made stronger.  The back log of cases had been cleared.

There was a legal system to operate in and they would only take action if it was expedient to do so.  This would normally look at whether any harm was being caused by the breach.  Even if action was being taken, there was a right of appeal and this process took some time, which often meant local residents felt no action was being taken.

It was clarified that it was not possible to serve stop notices on dwelling houses and this included HMOs.

It was suggested that as the audit report on the enforcement process was so poor that maybe it would be beneficial to have a new report in order to see how things had progressed and improved.

Chris Lyons confirmed that a HMO only needed to prove that it had been used as such for 4 years now.  It had previously been 10 years.  He stated that if member of the public provided them with evidence about the use of a dwelling they would always investigate.

It would only be possible  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.