“Sorry but you have lost the support of local landlords" - Private landlords hit out over Portsmouth City Council's homelessness strategy

Private landlords have hit out at Portsmouth City Council over their homelessness strategy – despite private evictions being the main single cause of homelessness in the city.

In a recent meeting on the council’s new homelessness strategy, the Portsmouth and District Private Landlords Association (PDPLA) criticised the council’s additional licensing for houses in multiple occupation (HMO) and said it was no longer backing the authority.

Currently, HMOs of five people or more require a licence under law, however, Portsmouth City Council (PCC) introduced additional licences for HMOs of three or four people – the income being used to fund new home inspectors.

In a written statement presented on behalf of Martin Silman, the chairman of PDPLA, he criticised the council’s strategic aim of preventing homelessness.

“PCC has reduced housing stock for the most in need by removing over 1,000 rooms from HMOs in the city by forcing many to reduce from five or six beds to four due to the onerous and inappropriate communal living space requirements that came with the updated mandatory licensing regime several years ago,” he said.

“PCC’s additional licensing has driven hundreds more HMOs out of the local market, where are you going to house all these single people knowing that you’ve massively increased the problem you seek to solve?

“Sorry but you have lost the support of local landlords, it really is time that PCC stops concentrating on saying the right words and ticking boxes and does something that improves the situation.”

Last year, 33 per cent of homeless applications in Portsmouth were due to evictions from privately rented tenancies, while 28 per cent were due to friends and family no longer being able to accommodate.

In response to concerns, Cllr Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing and tackling homelessness, clarified that the number of rooms removed from HMOs is 368, not 1000 as previously stated.

He said: “The steady stream of HMO applications we all see applying for planning permission each week is not a mirage. The eight HMOs the planning committee approved recently were not some sort of psychedelic dream.

“We want to crack down on bad landlords, the landlord regularly complains about the space standards that we have but that’s because too many people on our waiting lists say they don’t want to rent privately because they’re worried the quality of the home will be poor, the landlord won’t do the work needed and then get kicked out anytime.”