A city council is monitoring landlords and the buy to let market due to residents’ concerns there are so many rental properties it is affecting whole communities.
New figures reveal more than half a street in York is solely occupied by students in buy to let accommodation. And residents and a parish council are pushing the local authority to slow the growth of HMOs in the area.
The Government announced in January that landlords could be forced to apply for planning permission to establish a new House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO).
And Steve Galloway, York City Council’s executive member for city strategy, recently stated officials are considering the proposed HMO changes and had also been in discussions with representatives from York’s letting agents group.
However this week a spokesman for the authority said officials are not looking at reducing the numbers of lets, and instead said the body is “keeping an eye on the situation”.
The spokesman also added the council is unlikely to put a hold on any future landlord applications.
As student households are exempt from council tax, City of York Council lost £2.7 million on such charges last year, compared with £850,000 a decade ago, although the authority was reportedly compensated through Government grants.
A council spokeswoman told York Press that when properties were solely occupied by students; exemptions were built into the Government’s tax-base formula to determine the level of general grant issued to the authority.
Money aside, residents are concerned about the effect HMOs are having in their neighbourhoods and Osbaldwick Parish Council has accused York City council and the local universities of shirking their responsibilities.
Residents are lobbying councillors to make a test case out of a stack of HMO applications before planners, of which there are nine in total.
University bosses are also under fire but insist they are providing new accommodation to meet the growth in student numbers.
A spokesman for the University of York said: “We cannot compel students to live on campus, but in the last three years we have provided nearly 1,000 additional bed spaces.
“It is part of our strategy to attract more second and third-year as well as postgraduate students to return to live on campus.”
York St John University said more than 40 percent of its students were mature, with many coming from local communities.
A spokeswoman said: “We have also been working in partnership with Harrisons to provide new multi-million pound purpose built flats and studios for students.”
