Young professional house sharers say that house-sharing restrictions aimed at curbing the “studentification” of some Brighton neighbourhoods are having the unintended effect of leaving them out in the cold.
For three years now, the council has refused to allow new houses of multiple occupation (HMOs, where three or more unrelated people live together) in a swathe of the city running from the North Laine to Moulsecoomb and Stanmer if there are more than 10% already within a 50m radius, with those already existing being forced to be licensed meet health and safety standards.
But as the demand from students for house shares continues to rise, it means that non-students wanting to house share are finding it almost impossible to get a look in.
And others have complained that the licensing requirements have pushed up rents as landlords are forced to make changes to meet the new requirements.
But the council says the restrictions are needed to protect the balance of communities – and suggested house-sharers should look further afield to other parts of the city, including Hove, where there is no cap on the number of HMOs.
One young professional Lucy Kenward, who had to move out of Hanover after she and her friends were evicted from a house which did not meet the HMO licence regulations, said: “The system seems to be weighted against working professionals who choose to share a home communally.
“There are plenty of us and it makes me sad we all seem to be pushed out of central Brighton simply by poor accommodation on offer and landlords who prefer conventional families or students who seem clueless about the huge disparity between the sky-high rents vs. the standard of housing on offer.
“Myself and my housemates found a two month struggle on our hands last year to get any landlord to agree to our offers. We left Hanover (with much sadness) because the only homes we had a chance to view were grotty, unloved student properties which were very overpriced, in poor condition and clearly a cash cow for the landlord and the agent.
“The reason we had to move from our previous happy home of six years in the first place was that our landladyc ouldn’t get an HMO license as one of our bedrooms was 10 cm too small to be classed as liveable. The guy living in said room was happy enough.
“One agent told us that soon anyone working in Brighton and earning a living or minimum wage will be renting a home in Worthing or Lancing.”
And another professional sharer, Rachel Simm, said: “The HMO licensing is making hard-working people that can’t afford the rising Brighton rent in Brighton homeless.
“So many people are getting pushed out of Brighton and I’m one of them. All my friends are slowly disappearing into Seaford and Worthing. It’s so sad!
“I have first hand experience of house-hunting and it is clearly students living and getting into a majority of those houses first, which is fine, they need somewhere to live too but people outside that bracket need to be catered for.
“There needs to be balance in the housing situation in Brighton, so everyone has an equal chance to keep a roof over their head and stay in the city they love.”
However, the HMO regulations were defended by Brighton and Hove City Council’s lead councillor for housing, Anne Meadows, who said they were the only option available to halt studentification.
She said: “We are really concerned about the loss of family homes in the city. There is a tipping point, and it has been reached it in certain areas, like in Moulsecoomb, my ward.
“There is a ripple effect – you lose the community ethos, because students change every year and aren’t generally interested in joining community activities. It also has, for example, a knock on effect on local primary schools because if you have no families, you have no pupils.
We need to spread the load a little. If you are a house sharer, there are other places you can go to in the city where we have extended the licensing, but not the planning controls.
In Hove, for example, there could be no problem in that area of the city because students don’t like to travel too far. It might be more suitable for graduates and young professionals.
“We are having to use rather harsh methods because the business model of an HMO stacks up better for landlords than family homes. The planning powers available to the council do not allow it to discriminate between HMOs occupied by students and non-students.
“We are not trying to stop them, just say to them you have saturated this area, why not put them over there instead?
“There has been no management over the last couple of years of how the universities are bringing students in, but they take no responsbility for housing them. She the university be housing them? This is the big question.”
The thing is the Council are missing out on Council Tax if Young Professionals want to Share a House,please could a reporter ask Cllr Ann Meadows why this is being allowed?
The University of Sussex was last week exhibiting in the entrance to the Jubilee Library proudly displaying plans for a few thousand units of student accommodation. Trouble is, that it is for FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ONLY! The University is shamelessly expanding, applauded by BHCC for doing so, and hoovering up housing capacity for its expansion programme. Lots of fees for the uni and thousands fewer units of housing for the general, non-student population.
They are overtrading with the blessing of this council.
Sorry I don’t have any sympathy. If you are a ” young professionals” then you must be working and able to either rent a two bedroom flat you could share with another or afford to move further out of the town centre. After all some “young professionals” commute daily to London! How do they think lower paid workers, young couples and families feel knowing they may never be able to move into a family home because they’re all occupied by students or “young professionals”. Just walk around the Coombe Road areas or east of Fiveways and see the number of “To let” signs on what used to be family homes. Everyone in Brighton is affected by the lack of accommodation because of the proliferation of hmo’s housing students, but if you are a “young professional” you have more options than most of the other disadvantaged groups. The number of multi occupancy properties should have been capped years ago but better late than never! Universities should be responsible for providing their own accommodation for their students leaving the rest of Brighton for long term residents!
“Young professionals” doesn’t automatically mean rich. I was earning less than the living wage as a full time “young professional” in the charity sector in Brighton. I don’t believe I should be forced out of the place I have lived all my life because because of souring rents. And of course we share accommodation. It still means paying half a months wage for rent of a small room in a damp house. That’s after you’ve forked out the huge initial letting agent fees.
The majority of these young professionals are just graduates loitering around trying to keep the last 3 years of hedonism going. Well, it’s time to jog on and make space for the next generation of numpties. There’s plenty of low paid work for you to do back in your one arsed town so YOU GO HOME.
Are you from The Argus comments section?
BHCC has issued almost 3000 HMO licences SINCE 2013 rules were introduced. Only 100 applications have been made to Planning for change of use – about 50 approved. 50 are under investigation. So about 2700 planning applications have NOT been made. Of these 3000 licences, approximately 400 to 500 fail to meet the 10% already within a 50m radius rule… so there will be many more evictions if Planning actually gets its act together on enforcement. Sharers also finding Hove hard to rent because HMO licenses needed there too but landlords don’t want to spend the money to upgrade the properties. Plenty of families from London wanting to rent here, so not an issue for the landlords. Sharers of any description are considered unwelcome in many parts of this city.
Sounds like a form of population “cleansing”… since when has a council been able to decide who can live where according to their occupation? Being a student is a valid occupation too. No-one should be discriminated against on the basis of their occupation, race, religion, sexuality… Imagine if the same was done to restrict gay communities here in the 1970s when it was illegal. Violation of human rights.
What people forget is that 20 years ago, Mouselcoomb was a very different place. A no-go area, with a poor reputation. Now, it is diverse, with a mixture of people living alongside one another. The landlords who have invested in the area have, in my opinion, on the whole improved the quality of housing stock (especially since the licensing was introduced). I appreciate students come with their problems – anti-social behaviour & rubbish for example – but the same can be said for other residents in the area and there are ways of tackling these issues with existing legislation.
The reality is that Article 4 has capped the amount of student / shared houses in the 5 wards affected, yet the number of shares continues to grow. This means that other areas are now having more shared accommodation – e.g. Patcham, Woodingdean etc.
Furthermore, house prices have been detrimentally affected in the areas of Article 4 restrictions. HMOs have rocketed in value (as they are the only properties of interest to landlords) and family homes have struggled to gain any value in the last few years. There can be as much as a £50k price difference between a family home and a licensed HMO on the same street. This means family homes are struggling to sell, as not many other families want to spend £300k+ to live in those areas, when they can buy a nice home in say Portslade for less. Landlords wont touch the family homes in the area because they cannot let them to sharers.
I’m rather troubled when I see comments like Hollie’s. It’s your choice to work for a charity or another low paid job. And don’t tell me you can’t find a properly paid job for a young professionals as you describe yourself. I had 2 jobs when I was young and even worked in the weekends to better myself. People are quing to come here and do any job while you blame everyone but yourself!
If where you live is damp and s##t then tell the landlord and if he ignore you, then move on! All this blaming culture don’t help you or people like you.
As someone else said, if this town is not good enough for you, then MOVE to a cheaper place.
‘I appreciate students come with their problems and there are ways of tackling these issues with existing legislation’.
No there aren’t, not in reality. We have about 60% students living in our small road and I have watched over 14 years many families and home owners being driven out as a direct result of the hell of living next to students who are beholden to no-one. Our lives can be a living misery depending upon the student neighbours of each year and we have no-one to go to – the last university based housing ‘co-ordinator’ as good as told us to stop moaning and put up with it. As for landlords ‘investing’ in the area I beg to differ if my road is anything to go by. Most student houses stand out by the peeling paint, crumbling facades, general run down neglected appearance, overrun gardens, dirty windows, ragged curtains etc ad infinitum.
I am 25, and a midwife living in Brighton, as I have done all my life, and has my family has for over 200 years! Currently looking to share a house with my two best friends, who are also midwives, and getting no where and in a few weeks I will be homeless!!!! We want to live together to make living affordable, which is difficult already in Brighton! We just want somewhere to call home and be happy! It’s ridiculous and something needs to change!
As a former Brighton resident, I am horrified by the accommodation being provided and built for students. As a Brightoinian, who has recently moved back to the town from abroad I have seen a distinct transformation of the housing situation in Brighton over the 20 years I have been absent. Despite me and my partner both having full time work, we cannot rent in Brighton or Hove. Sadly, Brighton has become a town orientated towards students and attracting them to live here. I will probably have to live in Eastbourne or Worthing and commute. My salary does not allow me to do this, as pointed out by other people. Why should students have preference over everything, including buses. I cannot get a bus home but 6 can pass at a time to the university. This further creates animosity between residents and the student population. My brother with his own business has had to move to Eastbourne as a result of escalated prices.Many houses in Coldean are now for students, but not affordable for me or my partner. Soon we will have to go to Portsmouth or Hastings to find accommodation at liveable cost. Keep going!!! The council only cares about student I income. It’s a shame. Many people originally from here will have to go. At least I can live with my parents at the age of 40!!!!!! Long live student life.