Clause 44 - Licensing of HMOs to which this Part applies
Housing Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Matthew Green (Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
Yes, I agree entirely. My quote from the Entec report refers specifically to buildings occupied by vulnerable persons. Many such buildings have one or two storeys rather than three storeys, so a whole group could be excluded.
I hope that the Minister will be positive and assure the Committee that the Government intend to widen the scope of the measure and that this is an interim stage to allow the system to get going. Some proactive councils might come to the Government and say, ''We would like to extend licensing to this group of housing in Bournbrook in Selly Oak'', or the centre of Cardiff, or places of a certain scale such as those. However, my concern is that a lot of HMOs will be in areas that—unlike the places that I have just mentioned—are not full of other HMOs. Such areas will get missed and will not have the advantages of HMO licensing, because councils will not come forward with additional licensing proposals for them.