Housing for illegal migrants QUADRUPLE stone's throw away from Shabana Mahmood's constituency
Housing for illegal migrants has quadrupled just a stone’s throw away from Shabana Mahmood’s constituency, it has been revealed.
Sandwell in the West Midlands has seen an enormous increase in the number of HMOs since 2015.
Sandwell is only a few miles away from Ms Mahmood’s constituency of Birmingham Ladywood.
In 2015, the local council estimated there were 835 HMOs in the area; however, that has now skyrocketed to 4,200 last year.
Bearwood Road in Smethwick has at least 19 HMOs in operation that can house more than 140 occupants.
One councillor told The Sunday Times: “We wouldn’t put battery hens in places like this.”
During his Makerfield by-election victory speech, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut-price approach to [housing] procurement, that means areas like this can end up like HMO Britain.”
Landlords find HMOs attractive as they can usually earn more rent from multiple occupants than from a family or a couple.
Chris Miles and his wife Brigitte Hardt had lived for 22 years in Eastleigh, Hampshire, next to an elderly woman.
Following her death last year, aged 94, her three-bedroom house in Archers Road was bought by property investors who turned the house into a six-room HMO.
The couple was only made aware of the plans when the landlord applied for a kitchen extension.
Concerns were raised over parking and the noise coming from the house.
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Ms Hardt told The Sunday Times: “We could put our opinion into the council for the kitchen extension, but not the change of use from an ordinary house to a six-room HMO.”
The couple was powerless to stop the transformation, leading to neighbours stepping in and leading a campaign to stop HMO development by persuading the council to issue an Article 4 directive.
The intervention would see the removal of permitted development rights for HMOs and require the landlords to obtain approval before transforming the house.
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