Thumbs up for HMO amid ‘community cohesion’ concerns

Council planners have backed a HMO conversion near Newport city centre amid concerns over “community cohesion”.

Applicant Wilmont Assets Ltd has proposed turning the two-bedroom mid-terraced house at 25 St Edward Street into a HMO for up to four people.

The matter was referred to Newport City Council’s planning committee at the request of Stow Hill councillor Kate Thomas, following local concerns about the conversion’s impact on other residents, parking and antisocial behaviour.

HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) are typically properties for between three and six single, unrelated adults who have their own private bedrooms but share other communal areas.

Case officer Jacob Cooke told the committee the conversion would involve creating a new bedroom on the property’s ground floor, and reorganising the first floor to make an extra bedroom.

The council received 35 objections from local residents, which Mr Cooke said related to  issues including “potential overconcentration of HMOs and the cumulative impact on local character”.

Like many other councils, Newport places limits on how many HMOs can exist in any one area, and in this part of the Stow Hill ward that limit is 15% of all homes in a 50-metre radius.

Mr Cooke said the only other HMO within 50 metres of the application site was the neighbouring property at 26 St Edward Street, meaning the proposals were “acceptable in terms of HMO density”.

He added the proposed bedrooms met the council’s minimum size standards, and described the property’s location near the city centre as “sustainable”.

Other public objections included concerns around the conversion’s “adverse impact upon residential amenity”, parking… and “the inadequacy of refuse and recycling storage arrangements”.

Cllr Will Routley told committee colleagues he was “always worried when you get a concentration of HMOs like this in one block”.

HMOs could lead to “a lot more comings and goings than any normal household would attract”, he said, adding: “I don’t think that’s a strong enough reason for me to go down the refusal line.”

Cllr Routley asked whether the committee could restrict the HMO to one person per bedroom.

Senior planning officer Andrew Ferguson said his department had proposed a condition which “limits it to a maximum of four occupants at any time… based on one occupant per bedroom”.

Cllr Matthew Pimm said St Edward Street contained some “very small and restricted properties”, and while the immediate area did not have “enough HMOs for this to be refused, there’s also a large number of rented accommodation [homes]… including assisted living, temporary accommodation, sheltered accommodation”.

Mr Ferguson said community cohesion was “one of the key issues with HMOs” for the department, but “in this particular case we don’t have any evidence before us that those properties are within this radius”.

The committee agreed to grant planning permission subject to conditions, including a further stipulation proposed by Cllr Mark Howells that the property’s boiler is relocated from a bedroom to a communal space.