Plans to turn a semi-detached house within the Southport Resort Area into a house in multiple occupation (HMO) for 10 people have been approved. The house on Bath Street is also within the town’s Promenade Conservation Area, and already has a licence to become an HMO.
Reconfiguration and External Changes
Under the plans, the rooms will be reconfigured to provide six bedrooms for up to 10 people, but there will be no change to the outside of the property, apart from the bin store being moved to the rear to improve the appearance of that part of the street.
Applicant's Commitment
The applicant, Premium Living, has said: “The purpose is to continue to offer high quality, affordable shared accommodation to working professional people such as key workers, graduates, local workers and those on secondment from established employment (not intended for students).”
The firm said that it has a locally established and experienced team “dedicated to caring for their tenants and ensuring that all properties are refurbished on a regular basis and maintained to a very high standard”.
Premium Living said that it is committed to making sure that the use of the property as an HMO does not adversely impact on its neighbours, screening prospective tenants with background and employment references and checking their legal status in the country if they are not British nationals.
It said: “In many areas there is great concern about the effect HMOs have on the local community, this can be caused by density of that type of housing, noise and anti-social behaviour from tenants. “The applicant believes that this is caused by the choice and standard of property. By providing a high-quality residence aimed at working professionals this problem simply does not exist.”
Premium Living has promised to send a gardener and cleaner to the property weekly, and to visit communal areas just as often, carrying out quarterly inspections of all bedrooms.
Council's Decision
Sefton Council said that as it reviewed the application it considered its potential impact on the character of the Promenade Conservation Area as well as the effect on neighbouring properties. It decided that the impact on the conservation area would be neutral because the property would not change externally.
It said that the council has a policy in place seeking to prevent an over-concentration of HMOs and flats by restricting conversions to no more than 10% of properties within a 100-metre radius. However, town centres are exempt from this rule.
It also stated that under national planning policy, it is encouraged to approve proposals for new homes unless there is a strong reason for refusal.
The council said that the sizes of the proposed rooms in the HMO comply with requirements and that each has a large window.
However, each HMO occupant should have at least 10sq/m of outdoor space, which would equate to a total of 100m2 in this case. The outdoor space attached to this property is only around 73sq/m, but the council said it recognised that the site is “very constrained, with limited opportunities for outdoor provisions”.
The council placed a condition upon its approval that sound insulation be installed in the shared wall with the neighbouring property.
It concluded that the proposals would “be beneficial to the vitality and viability of the area, plus the overall regeneration aims for the town centre”.
