EXTRA rules for landlords will now apply to HMOs in another two-thirds of the city following a change in the council’s rules.

The ‘additional’ licensing scheme for houses of multiple occupation (HMO) – which includes such basics as safe gas and electrical appliances, fire safety precautions, suitable room sizes, and the right number of kitchens and bathrooms – has now been extended to cover all of Worcester having been in place for just a third of the city for the last three years.

The added rules are also used to make sure that landlords deal with anti-social behaviour and look after HMOs, so they are safe but do not also become a blight on communities.

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City-wide rules were supposed to have been put in place in 2020 but were thwarted by the council’s Conservatives and introduced in only five of the city’s 15 wards – Arboretum, Bedwardine, the city centre Cathedral ward, St John’s and St Clement.

At the end of last year, the city’s Labour councillors renewed calls for the council to investigate extending the rules to cover tenants across the whole city.

The plea has now received the backing of the council’s cross-party communities committee and will come into force in September.

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Labour leader Cllr Lynn Denham said she had heard many heart-breaking stories from tenants who were suffering from “mould, broken down stairways, doors hanging loose from their hinges and letterboxes held together with tape” and had called for stricter rules.

“It shouldn’t matter where you live in the city,” she told councillors last year. “This is about fairness. And this is about protecting vulnerable tenants across the city.”

“Those who are struggling to make ends meet may have less choice in terms of where they live and where they can afford to live. Substandard accommodation shouldn’t be acceptable.”

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In March 2020, just weeks before the country went into the first Covid-19 lockdown, the city council’s officers had recommended introducing a ‘blanket’ policy, so the additional HMO rules and standards applied to buildings in every council ward in the city, but the move was blocked by the council’s Conservatives.

When councillors met that March, a change to the recommendation was proposed by then leader Cllr Marc Bayliss, who was part of the communities committee as a substitute for fellow Tory councillor Nida Hassan, to only introduce the rules in five wards.

Cllr James Stanley, who at the time represented the Claines ward but now represents the Gorse Hill ward alongside Cllr Mohammad Altaf, chaired the meeting in 2020 and when the vote on the HMO rules was tied by six votes to six, Cllr Stanley used his casting vote to push Cllr Bayliss’s proposed change through.

At the time, Cllr Bayliss said the regulations were already “unfair” and private landlords were being pushed out of the market by a “political agenda.”