Last night the Council, all in a good cause, launched a year long landlord tsunami on Beeston

Last night, Broxtowe Borough Council's Jobs and Economy Committee made the decision to work towards the introduction of a Article 4 (planning) Direction regulating the number of HMOs in all of Beeston Central ward and and parts of the other three Beeston wards (see my Beeston council tax exemptions map below). Click on map to enlarge). 

For Beeston Central ward's two Labour councillors, Lynda and Pat Lally, this was a moment they had been working towards for a good few years and Lynda's concern about the fact that it was going to take a year to do was understandable because she and her husband Pat were only too fully aware of the landlord tsunami they were about to unleash on Beeston. Assuming the Government grants the Article 4 Direction, as from 27 February 2021 ALL HMOs in the mapped area will be regulated and subject to planning permission and in some parts of Beeston no more will be allowed — hence the landlord tsunami as they rush to beat the deadline.

Lynda Lally thanked Beeston Civic Society for their support over the years and it is under their banner that I have done my mapping and report writing. The maps below are maps I have produced for the Civic Society although the opinions expressed are my own.

The Borough's Planning Officer made the point that even though the Jobs and Economy Committee was about to make a momentous decision, there was no guarantee that they would be successful — the Government could decide to reject the Article 4 Direction application because there was evidence which suggested there would be a surplus of student accommodation across Greater Nottingham in four years time as more student accommodation blocks are built. Anyone who lived through Lenton's takeover by private landlords will tell you that this was a story told more than once in Dunkirk and Lenton as the (Labour) City Council delayed and delayed the introduction of an Article 4 Direction. When they did it was too late! 

As another councillor pointed out, it is a pity that the focus is on students when there are a good many non-student HMOs in Beeston. As I have repeatedly said in this blog since February 2015, when I produced and posted my first maps and tables, the data for non-student households doesn't exist. The nearest you can get to tracking them is via the electoral roll. However many overseas nationals, despite having a vote in local elections, choose not to register now that voter registration is voluntary. 

The fact that my registered HMO maps are able to show non-student HMOs is because I cross-reference student council tax exemption postcodes with postcodes listed in Broxtowe's HMO Register against addresses. I know how the Lynda and Pat feel, given the former Conservative led Borough Council showed no interest in what was a problem and this was echoed by the Borough's Planning Office the last time I heard him speak. Last night he was whistling a slightly different tune but his words leave me suspecting his commitment to the task the Jobs and Economy Committee set him last night. We shall see. 

Two of the Conservatives on the Committee abstained, one voted against. I'm afraid I don't know their names but the one who spoke sounded like a spokesman for those landlords who will actively oppose the Article 4 Direction regulation HMOs in Beeston whilst buying up all the properties they can. I suspect the next 12 months will see a good few families leaving Beeston as they take advantage in the house price surge which is hitting Beeston already — my own house has, according to Zoopla, has added over £100,000 to its value since we bought it 5 years ago. Coincidence or what but we are about to get a 6 bed HMO at the entrance to the cut-de-sac on which we live. Once an Article 4 Direction is in place, house prices will fall dramatically, simply because the landlord feeding frenzy will be over. Family homeowners know this. 2020 is going to be the year to sell in Beeston if you want to get a (very) good price.

How do I know all this? Quite simply, I lived in Lenton for 35 years and sold after Nottingham City Council introduced, very belatedly, introduced its own Article 4 Direction regulating all HMOs — which is why I spent the past five years describing the private landlord take over of Beeston as 'Lentonisation' (read my note below).

For now, what happens will be in the capable hands of Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Hallam, the Jobs and Economy Committee Chair, who was, effectively, given delegated power to oversee the process of ensuring that an Article 4 (HMO) Direction order covering much of Beeston gets Government approval and is introduced a year from now. I am in no doubt that he has a tough fight on his hands. I wish him well.

He also made the point (which I have heard him make before) that Stapleford could well do with a few more students.

For now, here are the 4 pages which made up my note to the Jobs and Economy Committee last night with the support of Beeston & District Civic Society:

Broxtowe Borough Council and Beeston student council tax exemption data summary based on Council data as at November 2019 and how it relates to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

As some of you will know I have been tracking Broxtowe Borough Council Tax exemption data since 2015, using Freedom of Information requests. The Council have always been helpful, as they have on this occasion. Personal health issues have prevented me from sharing this latest data for 2019 with you earlier and, even now, it is not as detailed as my 2018 maps and tables.

What has prompted me to create new maps is a note I prepared for the Beeston and District Civic Society meeting about Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) on Friday just gone. I do not know the outcome of the meeting. Below is a copy of my note to the meeting, followed by two maps I have since created using data I have extracted from the November 2019 spreadsheet I received from Broxtowe Borough Council. The data includes every postcode in the Borough and this would make a very long list, so if your postcode does not appear in the list below it means that there are no council tax exempt properties shown against your postcode.

It is important to appreciate that each pin on the map represents a postcode location – NOT the number of council tax exemptions. For those you need to check the postcode spreadsheet below the maps. 

NOTE: I screen captured the lists - hence 'reenshot' covering a few postcodes. I have entered the missing postcodes at the bottom of each list page.

Finally, the maps do no more than hint at the extent of HMOs in Broxtowe, especially Beeston. There are many than my maps show. I suggested a methodology to the Council in April 2015 which would have enabled them to compile better estimates than I could, which included using the electoral roll as well as recording ALL HMOs regardless of the number of tenants.

Click on the text, maps and lists below to enlarge:

NOTE WRITTEN FOR CIVIC SOCIETY MEETING ON FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2020:

Students Discounts for single council tax properties will be a mix of lodgers and adult students living with a single parent/relative. Surnames may also be different and there will be some discounts with three different names that are actually families and not HMOs — hence my pointing out that Broxtowe Council is better placed than me to examine this data in more detail than me.

Missing postcode is NG8 2RW.

Missing postcodes are NG9 1AJ and NG9 1AL.

Missing postcode is NG9 1JX.

Missing postcodes are NG9 2EA and NG9 2EF.

Missing postcode is NG9 2JD.

Missing postcode is NG9 2WA.

Missing postcode is NG9 4FH.

Missing postcode is NG9 2LE.

Missing postcode is NG9 8GP.

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.

Updated Beeston Public Transport Pocket Map

Click on the map to enlarge.

Finalised Beeston and Broxtowe HMO and student Council Tax exemption maps

Here are the two maps I have been updating for several weeks, based on data provided by Broxtowe Borough Council. It has been slow but never tedious and, yes, I'm sure there are errors but they are few. I have spent some time cross-checking the data I have. If anyone does spot any errors please tell me so I can ensure they do not appear in the early-2020 update I have planned once I have updated information from Broxtowe Borough Council.

The next map will have colour coded pins, which will indicate the number of occupants in each recorded property. The map will not include individual addresses or postcodes.

*Both the maps below can be found in their original format elsewhere on BeestonWeek. What these maps have is more detail.

Click on maps to enlarge:

Telling stories

When I was a child my teachers used to complain that I was always 'telling stories': that I had done this and that and I usually had. The writer in me was crowded in at school and only escaped in the letters I wrote to my absent mother — something we did until the week she died, a few days before her 86th birthday.

They weren't all sweet and lovely, my politics and her behaviour saw to that, but I never feel happier than when I have a fountain pen in hand and a spiral A5 pad before me and, as if by magic, the former begins to write upon the latter and what I see before me I didn’t know until I see it there, for that is how I write.

I suspect is goes back to those childhood days when telling stories usually got me out of trouble. I'm sure my love of buses comes from overheard conversations when alone, aged 4, I began to visit my mother. Put on a bus, penny in hand, and met the other end. I used to count the stops. 23 on way, 21 the other. Strange that. Still I listen, rarely seeing faces. Those talking are either backs of heads or nostrils breathing down my neck, Sitting sideways isn’t much better, unless they are opposite.

Now my stories are for me, to give my mind a better place to live in these dark times and if you want to come along please do.

Robert Howard

Beeston Week… from today A Quiet Place

MILL CAFÉ 1

Roland paid a premium for his table in the Mill Café. A three seater in the window from where he could watch the world go by.

Kay guessed right when she figured that she could charge more if she made her café a little posher. Carpet, decent tables, crockery, flowers, that kind of thing. Oh, and no music. Plus the lighting of course. What she hadn't expected was a bonus, which came in the form of Scott Pearson, who came in and asked if he could rent it evenings to run as a diner. She was already doing Sunday brunch so she wasn't too sure at first, then she thought 'Why not?' and it turned out to be a good decision.

Roland, a retired man in his sixties, came in at 9 o'clock three mornings a week, ordered a black Americano and a portion of chips, got out his notebook and began to write. He had three coffees and left with a plain Stilton cheese baguette. Sometimes a woman about his age joined him for an hour or so. It was always a de-caff skinny latte and a cinnamon bun. Roland would have one too. When the woman left she always kissed the top of his head and held out a hand, which he kissed. Whatever the weather, once outside the woman would stand in front of the window and give a little wave, which Roland returned.

Roland and Kay quickly exchanged names and he had wished her well — the first customer to do so and she liked him for that.

To continue go to Cedricburgh