BASE HEADER

I wish to support the proposal for regulating student HMOs. Control is necessary if WDC is to achieve the new Plan's key aims of sustainable communities and choice of housing. Restraining over-concentration of student HMOs will be in the interests of both students and established residents. In the interests of robust planning the locational criteria will need to be based on precise numerical criteria that apply to the District as a whole and take account of the full range of student accommodation (HMOs, hostels and residential halls). WDC should hold in mind that in terms of numbers it has been estimated that the tipping-point for sustainability comes when students exceed 20% of the population or (given the density of HMO occupation) where an area contains 10% HMOs. Finally, if we are to avoid the problem seeping into hitherto unaffected parts of the District, the policy will need apply to District as whole.