This is because increasing numbers of local authorities are using article 4 directions available under the planning system to make landlords have to apply for permission to let their rental properties to groups of 3 or more tenants.
Many local authorities are concerned that so called 'ghettoisation' of HMO properties produces undesirable changes in areas formerly dominated by family housing.
Councils currently imposing restrictions on HMO properties according to the NLA are:
Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Canterbury, Exeter, Leeds, Loughborough, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Thanet, Warwick, Welwyn Hatfield, York.
It's no surprise that many of these towns are big student centres as this problem is often associated with student living.
Discounted landlord insurance
Milton Keynes does not possess a large student population, but it does have very blinkered Councillors, even filtering down to the Parish Council level. What Milton keynes does have is a high proportion of distribution warehouses employing staff on low wages (we get the ''benefit'' of lower end costs?) who cannot on their own afford to rent a one bed apartment and actually have a life at the same time. These same workers tend to room in HMO's. Take away the HMOs, the workers move to a more friendly town and take up employment there. MK misses out, employers have trouble recruiting and eventually close shop. Prime example, Tesco are closing their Fenny Lock distribution centre, employing many hundreds, because of a lack of readily available resources.
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