Nottingham Talks With Minister - Report On The Meeting With Iain Wright MP
News Story :: 2008-02-19 09:24:15
Graham Allen, MP for Nottingham North, arranged for a delegation from Nottingham City Council to meet with Iain Wright MP, the Minister in the Department of Communities and Local Government with oversight of planning, who took over from Phil Woolas MP during the Government reshuffle last summer. The delegation consisted of Cllr. Dave Trimble, Nottingham City Council Portfolio Holder for Communities, Leisure and Culture (who set up the Councillors Campaign for Balanced Communities last year and whose ward has more than a 50% student population), Shane Neville, Nottingham City Services Director: Planning, Mike Cole, City Council Student Strategy Manager and myself. Melanie Futer (Manager Off Campus Student Affairs at the University of Nottingham) also joined the delegation.
It was good that Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South who has campaigned alongside us for many years now and who is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Balanced and Sustainable Communities, was also able to make it to the meeting at the DCLG.
Iain Wright was accompanied by a number of Civil Servants, including Andrew Lynch (Use Classes Order is his field), and Marie-Laure Huke representing GOEM (Government of the East Midlands).
It was clear that Iain Wright and his Civil Servants had been fully briefed on the situation with respect to Use Classes Orders and HMOs, 'studentification', and the detrimental effects that concentrations of HMOs have on the cohesion and long-term viability of the neighbourrhoods which host them. My impression is that Government is now listening to what we have been saying for so long and is prepared to begin to address the problems, including the need to change the Use Classes Order so that HMOs are recognized as a separate land use from other, family, dwelling houses.
The Minister outlined some developments he and his Civil Servants are proposing to implement:
(a) What he called a 'quick and dirty' review is to take place almost immediately, the aim of which I think is to gather verifiable (rather than anecdotal) evidence about the effects of HMOs/studentification.
(b) Set up a Working Group to begin to meet very quickly after the review has taken place.
Whilst the Minister did not give any details about the nuts and bolts of what the review and the working group would entail, he did make it clear that he wanted input from the NAG/National HMO Lobby as well as Nottingham City Council (and, no doubt, Nottingham's two universities and their students unions).
The Minister also mentioned the private rented sector review launched by Yvette Cooper the other week. Again, he gave the very strong impression that he wants involvement in that review from us (NAG/National HMO Lobby) as well as the Council and other interested parties.
Councillor Trimble reissued an invitation to visit Nottingham that he had originally made in 2006 to Baroness Andrews , one of Iain Wright's predecessors at the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minster, and I, on behalf of the NAG invited him to visit our neighbourhoods and meet with NAG members in our homes over a cup of tea and some home made cake.
The invitations have been accepted and the Minister said that he hoped he would be able to combine a visit to Nottingham with one to Loughborough some time in late spring.