Beeston and Broxtowe HMOs – what was said for me.

Last there was a meeting about HMOs in Beeston and Broxtowe at the Pearson Centre which I didn't attend but my HMO maps was on display, so I was present, well sort of.  Judy Sleath asked me to write a few words about my maps in case anyone asked. She telephoned this morning to tell me that she had read them out and that I should perhaps share what I gave her on this blog, so vanity appealed to, here is what I wrote:

My apologies for not being able to attend this meeting but I hope the 2 maps I have compiled can speak on my behalf but, just in case, here are a few words I have written to help explain my interest in HMOs and council tax exemptions.

It was back in 2015 that I submitted my first Freedom of Information request to Broxtowe Borough Council for information about HMOs and council tax exemptions.

In 2014 I had attended a meeting at Nether Street School about the growing problem of HMOs on Lower Road. I was invited because I lived in Lenton at the time and well aware of what happens when landlords are allowed to turn family homes into HMOs without any monitoring. The result was the wholesale taking over of neighbouhoods, such as the New Lenton Conservation Area where I lived,

My wife and I moved to Lenton in 1979 and by the time we left for Beeston in November 2014 95% of the 105 houses in the Conservation Area were HMOs and there was an Article 4 Direction in place banning any more HMOs in Lenton.

From conversations with Beeston residents and activists it was clear that, whilst there was concern about what was happening, Broxtowe Borough Council did not see a problem — hence my Freedom of Information request and the subsequent publishing of the data I received.

I repeated the request in 2017, 2018 and quite recently for 2019. I missed 2016 because I was seriously ill. On each occasion Council staff have been attentive and very supportive, and they continue to be.

All the information I have received has been placed in the public domain via my Beeston Week blog and shared with the Civic Society.

I am in no doubt that what I have witnessed over the past five years can best be described as the beginning of 'the Lentonisation of Beeston’ — it begins with neighbours noticing what is happening on their street, then it becomes anecdotal as neighbourhoods share their experiences, then the newly arrived HMOs begin to cluster and extend, before what has become a stream turns into torrent and, apart from a few alert councillors like Lynda and Pat Lally, who try to warn their colleagues of what is happening, the Council wakes up one day to the realisation that a whole community has disappeared beneath a flood of HMOs.

By compiling the maps I hope to persuade Broxtowe Borough Council to collect and share data on all HMOs, not just the large ones, so they can compile maps and monitor what is happening in Beeston and across Broxtowe, with a view to encouraging public discussion about the creation of housing policies which include HMOs and controlling them by the introduction of Article 4 Directions where and when necessary.

For the record I spent 21 years working as a regional and national housing officer, managing and developing supported housing for vulnerable tenants, until I retired in 2006.

Good landlords welcome HMOs, as do their tenants. Housing is too important to be left to self-regulation and chance.

Finally, as you look at the 2 maps, please read the text panels as they explain in some detail how I compiled them.

Robert Howard, 6 November 2019.

JUDY: If asked, you can say I worked for Advance Housing and Support, a registered housing association.

Mapping HMOs and Student Council Tax Exempt properties - new maps

Broxtowe Borough Council's Jobs & Economy Committee has HMOs on its agenda when it meets this coming Thursday (4 July). Here is a link to the report:

https://democracy.broxtowe.gov.uk/documents/s4101/5.%20HIMO%20report.pdf

I will be including these maps in my response but right now I have been prompted to share my maps with you because of an online discussion currently taking place on Beeston Update about HMOs.

Click on the maps to enlarge:

I regard this map and council tax exemption data to be more important than the HMO Register when it comes to understanding why small HMOs need to be registered as well as large HMOs (small HMOs have 3-4 unrelated tenants living in them and, presently, are not registered).

The map clearly shows that there are few student council tax exempt properties outside Beeston.

You can use the 'search' facility on this blog to find posts by me dating back to 2015.

There is only one registered HMO outside the Beeston area in Broxtowe. It is in Nuthall. I suspect that there are many more properties which should be registered as HMOs.

Nottingham City Transport have kindly been mapping student halls of residence on their bus maps for the past two years. They appear on this map as numbers in boxes, which link to this list alonside the map:

Albion House and part of Broadgate Park are in Broxtowe. The other part of the latter is in Nottingham, albeit one bus stop away or a five minue walk. 

HMOs also have tenants who are workers and pay council tax, so small HMOs can easily go unidentified, especially if the tenants do not register as voters.

Right now, after years of inaction under a Conservative council, the Council is rushing headlong towards a policy for which it has yet to gather the evidence or to use what it already has. That is the data I have obtaining  from the Borough Council to compile my own tables and maps since 2015.

I really welcome the Council's interest but they need to slow down and think about what it is they want to achieve.

Finally, a link to a report from Coventry City Council in January this year which our Council might like to examine:

https://www.coventry.gov.uk/news/article/2760/licensing_properties_consultation

Council Tax exemptions data update

As regular readers of BeestonWeek will know I have a thing about council tax exempt properties, especially in relation to occupants in 'full-time education', generally referred to as 'student housing'.

My 'thing' relates to how too much student housing in any one area (eg. Lenton, Beeston) upsets the 'balance' of a street and the community it is part of. You have to look no further than electoral rolls for evidence of this fact. In turn this impacts on local shops, schools, house prices and local government revenue in the form of council tax income and any additional services as a result of the exemptions .

In February 2015 I Broxtowe Borough Council kindly provided me with data which I used to create a table of council tax exempt properties in the Borough by street and areas, plus a map of Beeston showing the density of council tax exempt properties by street (you can still see all this in my pages section to the right, where there are links).

At the end of 2016 I began the process of trying to update the data, but Broxtowe Borough Council refused me the data I requested. After I submitted a Freedom of Information request to Broxtowe Borough Council I was promised the data for mid-March 2017. I didn't chase it because by then I was in hospital having just had open heart surgery. When I did get onto it in April, there were clearly problems because the council officer who compiled the data in 2015 had left and what detailed data I was given was clearly inaccurate, so we arranged that I would have the data by the end of May (ie. about now).

In the event the data problems have continued, but I have found myself in contact with the person who has responsibility for compiling the data. After exchanging e-mails and on reflection we have agreed to compile detailed data about council tax exempt properties in Broxtowe for the end of September 2017. This has the advantage of coinciding with the beginning of the new academic year and the preparation of draft budgets for the next financial year.

As I have said on countless occasions this is not a party political issue as far as I am concerned. The fact that I am a Labour Party member does not prevent me from working with members of other political parties when it comes to council tax exempt properties. I believe a joint approach to this sensitive issue makes sense.

I was recently invited to write a contribution to the Beeston & District Civic Society Newsletter on the issue. I don't know whether it has been used, but I have just noticed an error on my part, brought about by me transposing two digits and, as a consequence, turning £590,000 in £950,000. The former is, according to a senior Broxtowe Borough Council officer in an e-mail to a borough councillor, 'The full council tax charge for Broxtowe residents in full time education in 2016/16 is around £590,000' (includes Borough, County, Police and Fire precepts).

Given that a 1p council tax charge produces c£53,000, then 11p of our charge goes to covering the lost council tax exemption income before any services are provided. The officer in question says 'The cost to (Broxtowe Borough Council) will be around £59,000'.

My numerical 'slip' may have been my mind thinking that in just a few years council tax exempt properties in Broxtowe will be costing council tax payers nearer £1,000,000.

I also know that this is not an issue Broxtowe borough councillors have investigated. Given the sums of money involved this is remiss of them. Even when they do see this information, as I know one councillor has, its significance seems to pass them by.

I am now extremely hopeful that the data I am working on with Broxtowe Borough Council will be shared with councillors and some way of putting the data in the public domain will be found which ensures a constructive dialogue takes place. Given the interest now being shown by Beeston & District Civic Society I hope they can be the mechanism by which this data reaches a wider audience.

The decline of mums and rise of private landlords in Beeston. 'Lentonisation' in a word.

Yesterday I caught a glimpse of Beeston's future if market forces have their way.

I really do applaud the enterprise of Charlotte and Steve Purdie, who are the driving force behind a new kind of eatery on Chilwell Road. It's called The Milk Lounge and it will open next week, but mums and buggies were already going in and out yesterday morning. It's a great website and well worth a visit. It will explain the aims of the Purdie family far better than I ever can.

The Milk Lounge has two sides and the one on the right is laid out like a play/sensory area and its bee image captures the feel of what should be a fun place for babies, toddlers, mums and families.

Now you may wonder what this has to do with private landlords?

Yesterday we came home to find the postcard below had been pushed through our letterbox. It asks the question 'Do you know how much your house is worth to an investor in student property? We do!.'

Click on the card to enlarge the text and read clearly. Also visit the PurpleFrog website so you can see for yourself how Beeston as well as Nottingham is being targeted.

We live on the edge of what was once the Beeston Fields Council Estate in a former council house. With so many sold to occupiers after Mrs Thatcher decided it would be a good thing to scrap council housing. Today, the number of council houses is probably in a minority and there is a good chance that there are as many private landlord owned houses as owner occupied properties on the estate.

In other words private landlord 'investor(s)' can make a profit out of owning even a small council house by renting it out to students, thereby qualifying for council tax exemption. Living rooms can be turned into bedrooms. The garden may well be large enough for an extension to be built. It will be impossible for Broxtowe Borough Council to refuse planning permission when a private 'investor'/ landlord submits a planning application because it has no registration scheme limiting occupants and property types and many houses already have extensions.

The number of council tax exempt properties in Beeston is probably growing at the rate of one a day based on what information I have already from Broxtowe Borough Council. I am waiting for more detailed information, as I mentioned in my blog post dated 8 April 2017. Based on the information I have I estimate there are presently around 1200 council tax exempt properties in Beeston (in 2015 there were 519) — an increase of 681 in two years. I await the promised information with interest.

In the meantime back to Beeston mums and why they are vanishing. The simple truth is that young families are being priced out of Beeston by a mixture of house prices and rising rents because of private landlord investors. I call this process 'Lentonisation' and I have blogged about this before (most recently in November 2016).

The Milk Lounge will, I'm sure, be a success and prove popular with mums, but over time the number of Beeston mums using The Milk Lounge will decline. What the Lenton experience shows is that oldies like us hold on as long as we can, but first time buyers and young families are priced out.

Only time will prove me right, but one thing is certain, Nottingham University is going to continue to expand and will need ever more accommodation for students. There are ways around the problem, two year degree courses based on 46 weeks teaching instead of 30 weeks as at present. More distance learning.

Students are not of themselves the problem and many want to live in the local community, but because Broxtowe Borough Council does not regulate the number of council tax exempt properties they end up living in ghettoes and not a 'balanced/mix community' (the Council talks about the latter, but there is no evidence that they actually care).

I will save writing about the loss of council tax income across the Borough and County to another day. The truth is local government services suffer and I believe all three main political parties in Beeston and on Broxtowe Borough Council are culpable. They have all helped to create the situation I have described above.

The devil is in the detail when it comes to student housing in Broxtowe

Yesterday I received two headline nuggets of data from Broxtowe Borough Council about student housing in the borough, with the street by street breakdown to follow.

As soon as I have it I will compile up-to-date maps and a table comparing 2015 data with 2017 data. Before I publish it I will share it with the Council just in case they have any questions concerning the way I have presented the data (it will the same format as in 2015. You can see the 2015 tables in the right-hand column across from this post).

You only have to look at the street by street totals for 2015 to understand why I say the devil is in the detail. It is going to be fascinating seeing whether the increases are spread across Broxtowe or clustered as in 2015. I have a good idea of what I expect the street by street data to show, so watch this blog for an update, probably towards the end of April.

Beeston crime and how I may be party to 'enabling or encouraging the commission of offences' according to Broxtowe Borough Council.

For some time now I have been waiting for information from Broxtowe Borough Council which would enable me to create and publish in BeestonWeek an updated version of my map showing council tax exempt properties by street in Beeston and across the borough. Last week I reminded them of my information request and what I received from Broxtowe Borough Council on Monday 6 February 2017 was an email telling me that:

The information requested in relation to Council tax exempt properties has been withheld under section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act on the basis that it is considered that the disclosure of this information would be likely to prejudice the prevention of crime by enabling or encouraging the commission of offences.  The public interest test has been applied in reaching this decision but it is considered that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the interest in disclosure.

Additionally, this information has been withheld under section 40(2), specifically section 40(3)(a)(i) of the Freedom of Information Act which states, that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure under the Act would breach any of the data protection principles or section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1998. Personal data, as defined by the DPA in section 1 constitutes as:

"Personal data" means data which relates to a living individual who can be identified-

(a)       From those data, or

(b)       From those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.

I have lodged an appeal against this decision and have been told I can expect to receive 'a response within fifteen working days'.

What I find puzzling is the fact that the information I requested is exactly the same as I requested two years ago and which Broxtowe Borough Council happily provided. In fact last time I also asked for information about houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) but this time I did not. So what has changed since 2015 to prompt this refusal?

The second reason for refusal can be easily dismissed as I have never requested 'the personal data of a third party' or any information which would make it possible to identify them. In addition much of this information, in one form or another, is already in the public domain. Landlords and letting agents advertise properties as student only lets and even put up 'to let' signs sharing this information with anyone who cares to notice (see my 29 November 2016 blog post, from which the picture below is taken).

So, I can only conclude that Broxtowe Borough Council have changed their mind about sharing the the information I requested (and, to repeat, they have already given in February 2015) because they believe this information being in the public domain in 2017 will 'prejudice the prevention of crime by enabling or encouraging the commission of offences'. 

After reading the email from Broxtowe Borough Council refusing me information about the total number of council tax exempt properties in the borough by street I thought, for a moment, 'What did I do when I published that blog post on 25 February 2015 about council tax exempt properties in Broxtowe (click her to see that blog post)?'  The post included this map:

Then I thought had my innocent post been responsible for a crime wave in Beeston (or anywhere else in Broxtowe) either Nottinghamshire Police or Broxtowe Borough Council would have contacted me to point out the problem I was causing and I would have deleted the information about council tax exempt properties immediately, but no one has!

Whilst I assume, I hope rightly, that Broxtowe Borough Council would, in 2017, deny the information I have requested to anyone else, I do be understand their decision to use The Freedom of Information Act has to be reasonable and based on evidence, and given I know of no one else who has published this information in the public domain, I have been in search of that evidence myself — which happens to be in the public domain and easy enough to find!

Nottinghamshire Police Authority diligently publish 'Crime Maps' for the whole of the county on the Police UK website. It took me a minute at most to find a Beeston (all) Crime Map for November 2016, which is the latest one available as at yesterday's date. I then decided to look at the month of November for the years 2012–2016 (a five year period). I have captured those maps and reproduce them below in year order.

What jumps out from the maps is the fact that more crime takes place in Beeston Town Centre than anywhere else (during the month of November at least, but I know enough about numbers and statistics to believe that this 'fact' will also be true for every other month of the year).

You can search the Beeston map by crime types and individual months going back as far as December 2010. At the end of the five Beeston Crime Maps below you will find two tables I have compiled: one showing all crimes for every November from 2012 until 2016 and one showing burglaries by month for years 2014–2016.

The table below shows crime in Beeston by type for the month of November during the years 2012–2016. The top three criminal offences are, on average, anti-social behaviour (35), shoplifting (20) and violence & sexual offences (15). Burglaries and Criminal damage/arson are in tied 4th position (13).

Now what of these crimes will be encouraged by Broxtowe Borough Council giving me (or anyone else) information about council tax exempt properties by street?  The only one, at a stretch, might be burglary, so I took my searching a stage further, as the table below shows:

Now, if the reasoning of Broxtowe Borough Council is to be believed I am being denied information because I have been responsible for a crime wave of sorts in the Borough and the only one that could be, by any stretch of the imagination is burglaries, although I would argue letting agents and 'to let' signs advertise student properties far better to would-be criminals than my my humble blog, but I can hear someone saying 'He's only shown us Novembers, what about the other months?' Well, here they are for the years 2014–2016.

Given I did not post my map (or tables) about council tax exempt properties to this blog before 25 February 2015 they clearly had nothing to do with crime, especially burglary, before 25 February 2015, so can discount all those months. Perhaps burglars who saw my map at the end of February 2015 got to work immediately, but what the evidence shows is that only the months of May (12) and October (24) are higher than the same month in 2014. In other words just two out of nine months! If there was any reasonableness in the thinking of Broxtowe Borough Council I think they need better evidence than this.

2016 might suit the council's reasoning a little better insomuch as there were 15 more burglaries in the first eleven months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015, but the increase only averages 1 burglary a month (bearing in mind I have rounded all my averages to the nearest whole number which is not unreasonable). So, is there a case to argue that my map and tables 'prejudice the prevention of crime by enabling or encouraging the commission of offences'? I don't think so!

Much more telling are the months with the highest numbers of burglaries and how these might, just might be linked to student housing. In 2014 and 2015 October is the highest month for burglaries — the month after the new academic year begins and student house are awash with new kit and freshers yet to become street-wise. In 2016 it is February which stands out, a month after students return from the Christmas vacation, often with new goodies.

Living in Lenton for thirty-five years and being actively involved in the community, I knew far too many student homes which were stolen from, and in a good few cases the burglar just walked in because the occupiers had not locked their front door. The other attraction is the fact that in a student house there will be multiples of everything to steal. I could go on, but it's all so obvious that no would-be burglar finds out about the location of student properties by reading an old-fashioned blog like mine (and the one that I did in Lenton).

All I can do now is wait for Broxtowe Borough Council to let me know whether my appeal has been successful.

Council Tax exempt properties are too important to be hidden from public scrutiny. They impact of neighbourhoods, council income, local council services and, yes, crime.

If I have to continue my fight I will, but I will end by asking the same question of every Broxtowe Borough councillor, 'Do you support Broxtowe Borough Council's decision to deny me the information I have requested?'