1. Executive summary
Arun District Council (the “council”) ran a public consultation for 10 weeks between 12 June and 20 August 2023 on a proposal to introduce Additional HMO Licensing in River ward in Littlehampton and Hotham and Marine wards in Bognor Regis. A consultation document was produced which set out why the council was considering implementing an additional HMO licensing scheme, what that would look like in practice, specific information on items such as HMO standards, fees and charges, which properties would be covered, and in which wards it was proposed to introduce it.
An online survey was completed by ninety-nine respondents and five representations were received. When asked whether respondents agreed with the proposed additional HMO licensing scheme, 36.4% overall strongly agreed with the proposals.
55% of respondents said that they did not, based on their experience or opinion, agree that private landlords within the district maintain their properties to a good standard and 29.6% thought that properties within the River ward Littlehampton, Hotham and Marine wards in Bognor Regis were more poorly maintained than those within the district as a whole. The majority of respondents strongly agreed with the types of properties to be included within the proposed scheme.
All respondents agreed that landlords should effectively and adequately manage their properties with an overall response rate of 91.8% agreeing.
By introducing an additional HMO licensing scheme, it is hoped it will provide greater confidence that there are adequate safeguards in place to help ensure that people in these types of properties are provided with appropriate, safe, good-standard and affordable accommodation in private rented sector properties in the wards where the scheme is introduced. The responses received in the consultation survey are on the whole in agreement with the intentions of the council and the implementation of the proposed scheme and understanding of the reasons why such a scheme is proposed.
If the decision is made to designate an additional HMO licensing scheme in the three wards, there is a statutory three-month post-designation period before the scheme can be introduced during which time there are statutory requirements that the council must follow.
The council would be looking to commence the additional HMO licensing scheme sometime during the 2024-2025 financial year, which commences on 1 April 2024, if the decision is to designate the three wards as additional HMO licensing scheme areas.