Question 1
Question from Councillor Lee Anderson to the Leader of the Council:
“Residents in the New Cross area feel let down by ADC. With all the recent problems such as anti social behaviour, drug dealing and hostile behaviour residents have raised serious concerns about the number of HMO’s that are opening in the area. Could the council leader please explain what steps can be taken to ensure that the increasing amount of HMO’s is controlled in the future?”
Minutes:
In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13, the following question was submitted:-
Question 1
From Councillor Lee Anderson:
“Residents in the New Cross area feel let down by ADC. With all the recent problems such as anti-social behaviour, drug dealing and hostile behaviour residents have raised serious concerns about the number of HMO’s that are opening in the area. Could the council leader please explain what steps can be taken to ensure that the increasing amount of HMO’s is controlled in the future?”
Councillor Jason Zadrozny, Leader of the Council, responded as follows:-
“It gives me the opportunity to speak about the great and positive work we’re doing in Sutton and in general across the New Cross area to fill the void left by the current incumbents. I’ll answer your questions in turn.
Firstly, let me say at the outset anti-social behaviour, drug dealing, hostile behaviour is not acceptable and we’re determined to root it out, not only in Sutton but across the District. We much prefer to work pro-actively with people to change their behaviour but when we do that it obviously doesn’t make the news but we will take strong enforcement action where necessary.
We do this through our teams and with our relationships with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Crime Commissioner and as you know we’ve employed four more Community Protection Officers. I think you are up to speed with everything we’ve done with public space protection orders and everything else and I’ll give you the answer that I’ve written out.
However, I think the more important question is about the Houses in Multiple Occupation where we have done some work. Mandatory licensing of HMO’s has become a legal requirement since the Housing Act in 2004 but under the original regulations a HMO would need to be licensed only if it had three storeys or more or five persons or more.
We only think there are three of which are in the New Cross area. However, new regulations that are enforceable, that we’ve taken through Cabinet, mean that all HMO’s to include all properties occupied by five persons or more will now have be licensed. This regulation relates to all buildings not just those of three storeys and the extended regulations reply to flats when they’re being built as well.
We estimate that there are now two hundred properties within the District that will need the new licence that we will grant and we think there are around ten in the New Cross area. HMO’s in themselves are not the problem although I’m aware of particular areas where they are a concern. These are being tackled by a range of services working together. The issue is with the people there and the way the people choose to behave. We prefer to see buildings brought back into productive use and to work with landlords and tenants.
We are running out of time Councillor Anderson so I’ll give you a comprehensive answer about the work we’ve had to pick up in writing.”