Clause 77 - Licence conditions
Housing Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has hit upon an interesting and useful point. It seems that there is a relationship between the responsibilities of occupiers and those of their visitors. He will know, as will members of the Committee, that in our casework issues frequently arise when an occupier's visitors cause as much difficulty in the neighbourhood as the occupier does himself. I shall not go into great detail, but I am sure that there will be many occasions when the relevant authorities have not been able to solve a problem, not because the people causing it did not have a legal relationship with them but because they were visitors to a house. That applies to local authority properties and properties of registered social landlords, as well as private properties. It is a valid point to raise at this stage of our proceedings.
I am, however, concerned about proposed new sub-paragraph (ii), which refers to
''the responsibility of the occupier in respect of the conduct of other occupiers''.
That is a more difficult point to make persuasively, given that the other occupiers might be responsible adults. It is dangerous to include in legislation the idea that one adult should bear responsibility for the behaviour of another, whom they may not be able to influence.