SARG (Storer & Ashby Area Residents Group) Leads The Way

Charnwood Borough Council Logo

News Story :: 2007-05-12 13:56:51

Representatives from SARG (along with Charnwood’s Direcctor of Development, Loughborough University’s Community Relations Officer, and the President of Loughborough University’s Students Union travelled to London for a meeting on the 8 May with Phil Woolas MP, Minister for Local Government and Community Cohesion.

The key message from SARG endorsed by Charnwood Borough Council and supported by Loughborough University and its students union, was for government to recognise the need for a change within the UCO (Use Classes Order) so that the definition of an HMO within the Housing Act is adopted by the Planning system, and so that HMO’s are removed from Use Class 3, giving some degree of planning control. This would give local authorities the ability to effectively balance communities by avoiding concentrations of HMO’s in any particular area of a town/city.

  • The key questions asked by Loughborough were:
  • What are the objections to amending the Use Classes Order?
  • What circumstances allowed the UCO to be amended in Northern Ireland and why were they not applicable in England and Wales?
  • How might the current England and Wales UCO be amended? Sui generis? Or a separate Use Class?
  • Is there related legislation which might assist?

The Nottingham Action Group on HMOs has campaigned for three years now on the same platform as Loughborough. We share the same problems and the same concerns. We ask the same questions.