The dramatic growth in student numbers (now almost 2.5 million) has brought in its wake an increase in housing problems in some areas. Towns and cities including Nottingham, Southampton, Loughborough and Bristol have reported more empty properties during the summer and the creation of ‘ghost towns’ with shops, businesses and pubs simply closing down.

Ministers are concerned that an over-concentration of houses in multiple occupation in one area can have a negative impact on the neighbourhood and local public services. Student turnover is typically high, 52% in Leeds for example, which can affect the sense of community as landlords opt to concentrate properties ever closer together.

Caroline Flint said: “It is not acceptable that in too many areas people living in HMOs and local communities alike are having their quality of life affected. We must have balanced, sustainable communities where settled communities can live side by side with those in HMOs.

“The new HMO licensing scheme and tenancy deposit schemes are already making a difference but I want to know what more we can do to provide the right housing in the right place, guarantee proper living conditions for all, and ensure our towns are places people want to live and work in over the long term.”

In some university towns campaigners – and local authorities – want to limit concentrations of HMOs, particularly those occupied by students, by implementing restraint or threshold policies – e.g. stipulating that planning permission for change of use to an HMO will be refused once a certain concentration, defined as a percentage of the housing stock in that area, has been reached.

They argue that, to be able to do this, a clearer (and stricter) definition of an HMO is required for planning purposes.

Communities and Local Government is interested in the planning position in Northern Ireland where there is a different definition of an HMO than on mainland UK and HMOs are outside of the Use Classes Order, so planning permission is required for change of use to an HMO.

One option now under consideration would be to amend the definition of what constitutes a HMO (perhaps in line with N. Ireland’s), but allow a change to this use from that of a dwelling house to be considered permitted development unless a local planning authority chooses to implement an Article 4 Direction to revoke permitted development rights and require planning permission in all cases.

This could be used to control new HMOs within an area where there were problems without placing an extra burden on those local planning authorities for which it is not a significant issue.