Schedule 9 - Buildings which are not HMOs (except in Part 1)
Housing Bill
9:45 am
Mr Keith Hill (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Streatham, Labour)
I am enormously grateful to my hon. and professorial Friend, who is a great authority on university matters. I must confess that I have found the small print of my own Bill sufficient to occupy me, so I have not had the opportunity to read the small print of the Higher Education Bill. However I am certain that what my hon. Friend said is right, and I agree that it would be to the great benefit of Committee members—or some of them at least—if they were to examine the small print of that excellent measure. Mr. Conway, I must not digress further into those areas.
The subject of amendment No. 244 is owner-occupied properties—properties occupied by the owner and his family. I do not believe that it can be justified to impose on them the sorts of controls that parts 2 to 4 place on privately rented accommodation. I am a little baffled by the direction from which the Liberal Democrats are coming at the moment. Last week, the party was in powerful regulatory mode. The mood today, however, seems non-regulatory except for the demand to extend the licensing provisions to such property. That suggests a lurch back to regulation, but for heaven's sake who am I to expect consistency from the Liberal Democrats?
The position is not materially changed if the family have one or two non-family members living in the home. The HMO licensing provision is aimed at identifying high-risk rented property and ensuring that there is an adequate standard of management. Paragraph 7 to schedule 9 is important to ensure that the provisions do not also apply to owner-occupied accommodation just because non-family members live with the family. Regulations will be made to ensure that only genuine HMOs are caught by the provisions.