Representatives from Nottingham City Council are meeting with Iain Wright MP, Minister with responsibility for planning legislation in the Department of Communities and Local Government on Tuesday February 5 2008 to press for changes to planning legislation

Graham Allen MP for Nottingham North has arranged for a delegation to meet with Iain Wright MP consisting of Cllr. Dave Trimble, Nottingham City Council Portfolio Holder for Communities, Leisure and Culture, Shane Neville, City Council Head of Planning, Mike Cole, City Council Student Strategy Manager and Maya Fletcher, Co-ordinator of the Nottingham Action Group on HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and Melanie Futer (Manager Off Campus Student Affairs at the University of Nottingham)

Top of the agenda will be the urgent need for Government to enact changes to planning legislation requiring people who want to convert a family home into an HMO to apply for permission to do so.

Cllr Dave Trimble said: “We are asking, along with several other university towns and cities across the country, for a change in the planning legislation to allow more control of what happens to family homes. At present, a family house can be converted to a HMO without any need for planning permission.  We feel that this needs to be changed to avoid Nottingham losing its neighbourhoods.”

Maya Fletcher said: “At the moment there is very little that can be done to prevent a family home from being converted into an HMO. For Nottingham this means a loss of good quality family housing that the City can ill afford to lose, and neighbourhoods where families want to leave … not live! The changes to planning legislation we are asking for will help to prevent further erosion of neighbourhoods already swamped by HMOs, and to prevent other neighbourhoods from going the same way.”