Written evidence submitted by Antrobus Road Residents’ Action Group [EXA 100]

About Antrobus Road Residents’ Action Group (ARRAG) in Handsworth Ward, Birmingham and the basis for our submission.

Our street group based in Handsworth, Birmingham was formed in 2019 prior to the pandemic. The overall goal of ARRAG is to improve the quality of life in Antrobus Road and neighbouring streets. We aim to encourage residents to take an active part in their local street/community, improve communication and understanding between residents of diverse backgrounds and promote community cohesion. To this end, we regularly liaise with all the relevant services and other local groups.

The street (and area) has a high-density population and we experience significant and ongoing environmental and social problems from many poorly managed multi-occupied properties, which were once family homes. For those living near these properties, the distinction between ‘exempt accommodation,’ HMO (registered) and HMO (unregistered) does not in practice affect their day-to-day experience of the effects of ongoing bad management. However, as the street residents’ group we understand the difference. Last year following a FOI request to the Council we established that the road had 8 Exempt Accommodation properties, and we think this number may now have increased. The impact of eight poorly managed properties on one street can be immense. Exempt Accommodation is without a doubt playing a significant role in the issues faced by the road, already struggling with high HMO density.  There are problems with rubbish storage and bins on the street, fly tipping on pavements, in alleyways and gardens, as well as traffic congestion, road safety issues and noise. We have had a (major, national) case of modern slavery in the street along with prostitution, anti-social behaviour and street drinking.

We know that there are many long-standing residents, as well as newer arrivals on the road, who are united in their despair about the state that the street and surrounding area have been allowed to get into. Despite our best efforts, we have often felt ‘left behind’ by Birmingham City Council (BCC). Every Ward Forum meeting brings up the same issues in relation to poorly-managed Exempt Accommodation (and HMO) properties and somehow these are never really addressed. We find ourselves fire-fighting – property by property – and residents need to be exceptionally well-informed, time-rich and very persistent  -  in order to track down the property ownership/management of any Exempt Accommodation properties, and report the fly-tipping, poor waste management and Anti-Social Behaviour related to them.

We have recently been granted Commonwealth Games ‘Celebrating Communities’ funding for our project, ‘These Streets are Made for Walking’ working in partnership with the local fire service in relation to the ongoing concerns with the environment, in particular the levels of fly-tipping. These are thought to have reached such a scale as to represent a serious fire hazard to streets in the area, as well as degrading the street scene and affecting the health, safety and well-being of all the residents.

Birmingham City Council started participating in the DLUC national Pilot on Exempt Accommodation in autumn 2020. This, combined with our active involvement at local and city-wide level, has meant that we are seeing a glimmer of hope for the future in that we have been able to take an active part as residents and contribute to potential change. We have submitted evidence to Birmingham City Council’s Exempt Accommodation Scrutiny Review, taken part in the formation and running of the ongoing Perry Barr Constituency Housing Action Group, and invited relevant officers from the Council’s Exempt Accommodation pilot to our meetings. We attend meetings with other community groups in the city-wide Exempt Accommodation Forum, as well regular consultation meetings with the Cabinet Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods, whose portfolio includes Exempt Accommodation. This was formerly Cllr Sharon Thompson until August 2020. It is now Cllr Shabrana Hussain, although Cllr Thompson as we understand it continues to lead on the regional and national agenda for the Council.

We appreciate that you want to hear from a wide range of voices and that not all the questions in the call for evidence need to be answered. We hope that this submission covering some of the questions will give the committee a flavour of our experience of EA on the ground and how best practice in the area of EA management and enforcement might be addressed and advanced.

P1) What is the quality of EA?

Example of an Exempt Accommodation property in our area: a history of consistently unsafe management.

• In March 2020 during the lockdown, the house was forcibly entered by police in a major operation with dogs looking for an escaped prisoner. Several vehicles and officers attended.
• Later in the spring, police attended again.
• Next the house was occupied by a family of very young unsupervised children and a social worker recommended their removal.
• Next the property was occupied by tenants using it as a party house and they were subsequently removed.
• Next there was a notice on the door saying the property was empty.
• Next the property was occupied again and there was an incident of a knife attack involving a visitor and residents in the house. We were told that the perpetrators (residents) had run away. A large knife was recovered. 3 police cars, a police van and an ambulance attended.

It was shocking that at a time of Covid lockdown, such substantial resources were having to be used in this way. Despite terrifyingly bad management by this exempt provider, and many attempts at reporting it, it was only when the Birmingham EA pilot started that an Exempt Accommodation Officer visited the property formally. The EA Officer told us that they thought that a community protection order had been issued, but were not sure if this order was for the residents or for the property. The police also visited again in order to work with the provider.

We understand that this provider is one of the 7 Registered Providers now being investigated by the Regulator for Social Housing.

We urgently need Exempt Providers or their Managing Agents to play their part in fulfilling their obligations to the neighbourhood in which they operate and to be subject to rigorous enforcement/closure if they do not.

At the present time, the local police tell us that the bulk of their ‘calls for service’ continue to come from EA (and HMO) properties. Due to the ongoing lack of robust regulation they are themselves trialling a small local EA Forum where they meet with providers to try and anticipate potential problems such as ASB or crime, especially in relation to the inappropriate placing of certain residents in the same property.

We hope the Committee will look to strengthen the Regulatory Framework which applies to Registered Providers managing EA property, as well as the obligation of the Regulatory for Social Housing to enforce this framework. This is vital if police resources are not to be dominated by this issue in our neighbourhood.

We would also ask the Select Committee to look at what further powers the Police and local authorities need in order to act promptly to protect and safeguard law-abiding residents and neighbours. This is also surely in the interests of more efficient and effective use of police resources.

P8) How should EA be regulated? and
P9) What should the regulatory framework for EA look like?

The recent Birmingham City Council Scrutiny Committee inquiry into Exempt Accommodation received considerable and wide-ranging evidence of the negative impact of EA. In December 2021, the council approved the Scrutiny Report Recommendations for which we are awaiting implementation. This included the use of multi-disciplinary teams, and a further Scrutiny Review of the Council’s planning processes and decisions.

We would like to make 2 points in relation to this:

1. At a local level, there needs to be resources for a fully staffed multi-disciplinary team on permanent contracts so that there is full oversight of EA with ongoing spot checks and powers of enforcement. As recommended by the Scrutiny Committee, this should include Environmental Health, Fleet and Waste, Planning, Housing Benefit, Adult Social Care and Community Safety. Best practice during the early days of the Pilot showed some of this in action, with consideration being paid to  - for example - the state of the properties, the disposal of waste,  and the combination of tenants. Without this holistic approach, there is a real risk of departments continuing to work in silos and residents in affected areas continuing to feel disempowered. We would like the Select Committee to reflect on whether the extra cost of this might call for a new and more cost-effective form of ‘supported housing’ to replace EA to be bought in by central government, perhaps with a bespoke budget going to Local Authorities to cover this?

2. There needs to be much tighter planning controls to prevent neighbourhoods losing character and amenity due to an overconcentration of Exempt Accommodation. During the EA pilot, while the sheer scale of the problem was being uncovered, we were finding that more and more single household family houses were being converted into what we could only view as multi occupancy EA.   The exemption of EA managed by Registered Providers from being treated as HMO (Housing Act 2004, Schedule 14) needs to be revoked, as EA clearly has the same impact on areas as HMOs. Birmingham City Council now recognises this by including EA in its calculation of non-family housing density for HMO planning approval purposes. However, landlords are being very careful to keep their EA schemes below 7 occupants so they can claim - whilst they are doing the conversion work from family housing to multi occupancy EA use - that the property will still be occupied by a ‘single household’  – C3b instead of C3a. Planning law is quite lax as far as we can tell. The Town & Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010 (see Interpretation of Class C3 in these Regs) cross references to the Housing Act 2004 section 258 but does not extend the definition of single household as family housing so as to cover C3b or C3c use.

Some other authorities have a much stricter definition of HMO and do not allow properties to be parked as C3b during conversion to EA to avoid planning control. The case law that we looked at (Hossack v Kettering 2003) suggests that factors like whether the landlord decides who moves in, or whether the occupants decided to move in together as a household, or simply as individuals needing accommodation, and often with no prior relationship with each other, affects whether the house is a C4 HMO or a C3b property. Birmingham City Council, however, frequently takes the view that just because the number of occupants is under seven this means that the situation is more stable and therefore the occupants form a single household - so the property is not a C4 HMO. (Evidence to Birmingham City Council Exempt Accommodation Scrutiny Committee Review on 24th September 2021). After conversion to EA from family housing, the properties in Birmingham are usually leased to Registered Providers, so then having evaded planning controls, no longer need planning permission anyway.

In this way, and without planning control input, the whole character of streets and local amenity is lost, as well as much needed family housing. It is exactly the three and four bedroom properties which the city is predicted to need  - we have a significant and growing shortfall in Birmingham -  which are being taken out of the family housing market and used for EA purposes.

At the time of writing, local estate agents in Handsworth are confidently advertising multiple properties as ‘suitable for conversion.’ 

We think there needs to be a thorough review of how planning controls can be strengthened to help prevent EA being over-concentrated in streets and neighbourhoods, thus making them unsustainable - whilst simultaneously increasing local family housing.

Q10) Is there sufficient publicly available knowledge about EA?

No, there isn’t sufficient publicly available knowledge about EA.

As active residents, we have been on a steep learning curve since our engagement with the Exempt Accommodation pilot in Birmingham. However, for the bulk of residents in affected neighbourhoods such as ours, there is in terms of impact – as stated – no distinction in practice between EA and other kinds of multi-occupation.

This means that residents often feel powerless over how to report concerns when the status of the property is unsure and how to establish it uncertain. Should it be reported as an EA or a private rented sector property? Who enforces noncompliance with the Regulator for Social Housing’s regulations? Such information needs to be clearly available in the public domain so that there are clear routes for reporting and enforcement.

It is also extremely difficult to find comprehensive, reliable and accurate information about the number of EA properties in a local area, as the situation is fast-changing and local knowledge is often discounted when it is most needed.

As mentioned above, an FOI request was made to the Council in 2020. This showed Handsworth Ward as ranked 7th and that it is adjacent to other high ranking wards in the Perry Barr Constituency. As one of 10 Constituencies in the city, the Perry Barr Constituency therefore contributes some 20% of all EA in the city, making for significantly higher concentrations and ongoing attendant risks for neighbourhood sustainability and resilience.

Conclusion

We hope we have given a flavour of our concerns. In summary, with adequate support to EA tenants, better management and better planning controls, neighbourhoods could be protected AND Exempt Accommodation tenants’ needs looked after.

We hope the outcome of this parliamentary enquiry will lead to a joined-up approach with consistent use of multi-disciplinary teams, pro-active enforcement, holistic planning decisions,  and best practice shared nationally to support all residents, both those in exempt housing and their neighbours.

ARRAG would be most happy to give evidence to the Committee remotely or in person, should this be helpful.

January 2022