Clause 66 - Selective licensing of other residential accommodation
Housing Bill
10:15 am
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
My hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney) asked whether university accommodation is covered. He was right to mention clause 66(4), which allows ''the appropriate national authority'' to
''provide for descriptions of tenancies of licences specified in the order to be exempt from tenancies of licences.''
We intend to exempt halls of residence from this licensing regime for the same reasons that we gave during the HMOs debate. Universities should already be responsible landlords. Under part 4 we will exclude certain other tenancies as prescribed in an order that will reflect schedule 1 of the Housing Act 1988. For example, long leaseholds, local authority tenancies, and business and agricultural tenancies will be included.
The hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton has raised an important issue. I draw his attention to clause 88, which makes proposals for special interim management orders, which might be appropriate in the circumstances that he describes. As you have said, Mr. Conway, we will have an opportunity to discuss that clause next Tuesday, so that would be the appropriate time to talk in more detail about the concerns the hon. Gentleman raised. It is intended that the Bill should address the kinds of problems about which he is talking—and clause 88 provides the appropriate way to do that.
We have a wide-ranging debate and although we have concentrated on the detail, I think that everybody is in agreement on the strong need for these measures to be in place and on the strong support for them—particularly from communities in areas that are blighted by serious problems. The proposals will give them the power to help them address those problems.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 66 ordered to stand part of the Bill.