Written evidence submitted by Community Partnership for Selly Oak [EXA 050]
The Community Partnership for Selly Oak(CP4SO) is an umbrella organisation bringing together a number of groups(14) in the Selly Oak area of Birmingham for the purpose of injecting a local, community view into the planning and regeneration process. The group also has direct representation from local residents and businesses.
Daily Mirror 26 AUG 2020
Drug gang who built £17m property empire with 'dirty cash' was 'buying up roads'
In some cases, the gang seems to have set its sights on "buying up roads, almost", an NCA official said, owning five or six houses in three different Birmingham streets in Selly Oak.
Birmingham mail 7 SEP 2020
“Armed police, get down’ - Neighbours reveal raid on Selly Oak home after city centre stabbings “
One neighbour in Nately Grove said:
“They brought out two men in handcuffs." The house was occupied by a number of people, they said. “They’ve been there for a few months. We don’t really known much of them, but they would play loud music.”
Another resident described the police raid.
I saw them bringing about four people out.” “That house has been privately rented and they’ve been around for the last six weeks.
Map of Area and location of existing HMOs
Of the 2432 licensed HMOs on the current city register 1413 (58%) are in Selly Oak(B29). This is caused largely by the demand to house students from the adjacent University of Birmingham. However, due to a number of factors, decline in student numbers, the growth in demand for Exempt Housing etc. the nature of the area has now begun to change.
More HMOs are now being used for Exempt and Supported accommodation. And, this is happening right across the Selly Oak area.
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Gleave Rd- Residents Group
*** Gleave Road, Selly Oak has been used to house difficult tenants by ******************* for some time. But, over the last year it has become more and more of a problem to local people living nearby.
“……..all these people went into number *** and more cars began to arrive and join them inside the property. As the night went on there were sex acts against residents' windows, sitting on neighbor's cars, fighting, and swearing. “
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Langleys Rd – Neighbourhood Watch
“Just thought I’d inform you as to what went on next door during the night. I was woken up just before midnight and there were two large police vans parked, one outside number *** and the other across the road. Shortly afterwards an ambulance arrived too, on blue lights.
After about 45 minutes one of the male residents was taken into the ambulance by foot. He looked like he has a dressing on the left side of his face. The ambulance went.
Two officers from one of the vans were searching in the back garden with torches and then in the front too and then they walked up both sides of the road looking in front gardens with torches. One police van left and the other reversed onto the drive and has been there all night.
Another van has just arrived and taken over from the officers that have been here all night, presumably their shift has finished. I asked one of them if everything was ok, and he said he hadn’t read up on everything yet, but he did say there had been an incident here last night which they were waiting on a forensic team to arrive.”
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Oak Tree Lane – Residents Group
“Thank you for taking the time to investigate the situation at no *** Oak Tree Lane for me. I note your comments that it was an HMO at the time of the introduction of article 4. I note though that it is not registered with a licence and therefore I assume that it is a "small HMO" and did not need to be registered . Now that. as they have lowered the ceilings. it is now a 3 story building and if it was let to 5 or more unrelated people it would require to be registered. I note that Planning has refused such applications for other properties in the area 4 zone.
You may be interested in that the same modification is being undertaken at no *** OTL. Ie lowering the floors to make it a 3 story property. I note that this property is also not registered as an HMO (3 stories and 5 or more people).”
“Another drugs factory has been found on oak tree lane yesterday !! 63 plants”
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Gibbins Road – Friends of Selly Oak Park
“I just wanted to give you an update on the supported housing situation on Gibbins Rd.
After many incidents and police visits the letting agent controlling *** Gibbins Rd has ceased to use that property as Supported Housing and returned it to the landlord. The landlord has visited and was appalled by the state of the property finding among other things that the stainless steel kitchen sink has been split. He has now started to clear all the matrasses and carpets out of the property ……………...
We believe that 3 other properties in an area very close to this house remain as supported houses but then have generally been less problematic than no ***.”
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Heeley Rd - Landlord
“That evening I went round the back of *** Heeley Road which shared its rear entrance with another of my houses *** Heeley Road and found the girls bike in the back garden. The back door of the house was open and I went in and there were three men who had all been drinking and were quite obviously the worse for wear!
I asked them who the bike belong to and they told me it belonged to a man called “Snowy“ who was out, I told them that the bike did not belong to Snowy and that I was going to take it and return it to its rightful owner, at which point they got quite threatening, I told them to take their best shot, but inevitably they didn’t, I rang the police for some assistance, the police did not turn up, I rang the police again and they told me “blame Theresa May”, they said they were short handed and would not be coming out, needless to say I was furious. I took the bike and returned it to its owner.
I then spoke to Claremont Living the next day who again were not interested. About six weeks later one of the men who had been threatening towards me came up to me in the street and apologised.,
He told me that Snowy was a bully and that he was controlling the house and that the man who was speaking to me had been made homeless after splitting with his wife, he told me that Snowy or one of his friends had that week seen a female student one evening who had obviously been drinking and was stumbling and falling over, the man went over to her on the pretence of helping her and stole her purse from her handbag.
He also asked me to come into the house and to take photographs and to contact the local papers as he had been unable to get anything done about snowy and his friends, I went into the house, the house was in the most terrible condition, there were ashtrays with drug paraphernalia in them and plastic bags with more drugs in, bedroom doors had been kicked in and upstairs where there was a toilet there was a football size hole in the window.”
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Selly Park – Neighbourhood Forum
“I am one of the officers of the Selly Park South Neighbourhood Forum and I'm contacting you all as our neighbourhood has problems resulting from the number of HMOs and exempt accommodation including crime, antisocial behaviour, littering, fly tipping. We cover some of Pershore Road where they form most of the households and adjacent streets where their number is increasing.
We have always had many student households due to our proximity to Birmingham University but in recent years we have seen an increase in people in exempt accommodation which is poorly managed and not providing the occupants the support they need. As you are aware, this causes numerous issues and is now at the point where it is causing residents to move out of the area.”
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All of the above is indicative of the anguish for vulnerable tenants, and existing residents; the anti social behaviour, and that people are leaving the area as they can’t tolerate the situation. This increasingly destabilises the area as the houses are then bought for more HMO use.
The potential to impact the University housing market is also now a real possibility. With less student demand landlords are under pressure to find new income sources to service their loans. By housing those with high social needs next to student housing it makes it harder to let to students. This then leads to a cycle of student flight and replacement with more Exempt housing. If this happens its impact on the social and physical economy of the local area and the University of Birmingham will be hugely significant. With more consequent cost and demand on public services.
It is obvious that the city has exercised little control of the situation in the non commissioned sector, as it has allowed the unrestrained growth of this type of lease based housing from 8,000 to 22,000, in a period of some 3 years. With a direct cost to the public purse of of £170 million a year, not to mention the hidden financial costs to other services and the social impact on neighbourhoods and the tenants.
The Commissioned sector in Birmingham is massively undermined by the activities of the Exempt sector. It has targets and regulations. Which if it fails to achieve incurs financial penalties. There can also be a high void rate as Exempt providers can encourage the clients to fill their properties.
No other city in the country has presided over a situation of this magnitude. Though with in excess of 100,000 units in the country as a whole it is not the only city affected. And, with a global EA Benefit budget, with no national oversight, estimated at £1Billion, its impact on national government finances is far from insignificant.
It is often said Birmingham is an outlier. It is probably more appropriate to describe it as a “Petrie Dish,” were techniques to exploit and suborn have been refined.
Thus, it is becoming clear that new ways to abuse Public finances are now being developed as a response to increased enforcement from the Regulator of Social Housing, and these methods are being spread to other cities.
With regard to the lease based Registered Provider model prevalent in Birmingham, two particular issues are of concern:
1. It is especially pernicious as it excludes virtually every normal method of control that would usually apply to HMOs. (see Schedule 14 of the Housing Act 2004.)
2. It enables extortionate levels of public money to be charged for in many cases substandard care and housing. ”Support” in Exempt Accommodation is not defined, funded or regulated.
The Planning Use Class of C3(b) and C3(c) is also a serious Planning loophole as dwellings with no more than 6 occupants living as a single household are regarded as a dwelling house not an HMO. This last is particularly difficult as it places significant demands on planning enforcement to disprove such claims, as the interpretation of “single household” is based on case law not regulations.
Dealing with the immediate problems created by speculative Non Commissioned Exempt Accommodation requires more than short term government funded pilot projects using agency staff. Leaving aside the national shortage of Environmental Health Officers who would normally inspect and regulate the Private Rented Sector. The focus needs to be on proactive enforcement.
There is little point in single property problem orientated approaches when it is the landlords and agents who are the root cause.
The focus of investigation should be the landlords and agents who consistently provide the poor conditions. It needs to be risk-based, and intelligence led to prioritise the properties/offenders. Monitoring social media is also an important source of information as to what is happening.
The cost of enforcement needs to be reduced by using civil penalties, Public Spaces Protection Orders and formal cautions. Landlords who fail the “fit and proper person” rule can then be excluded. With tenants also encouraged to obtain Rent Repayment Orders it all changes the permissive climate that has operated previously.
With the new city needs analysis showing a large over supply of Exempt Accommodation(22,000 units) way beyond what the city needs(9,000 units), we now have a mountain to dismantle. Traditionally, if a Registered Provider(RP) failed, another RP would take on the assets and debts. With lease based RPs there are no assets, just numerous litigations.
Locally, without a long term exit strategy involving local community groups and other housing and statutory partners the situation will only grow and become worse.
Nationally, the Exempt Accommodation issue needs to be addressed from the Housing Benefit aspect and the Planning control view. However, the real issue is one of how we house and support our most vulnerable, and whether this is an area were the ability to exploit should be allowed.
January 2022
