Businesses publicising how to avoid Council HMO regulations - cllr claims

The long-running issue of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) has again been raised at Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning committee.

Speaking at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin read into the Council record online claims by a planning consultancy firm it had successfully avoided having to apply for planning permission for HMOs across the city.

Cllr Harkin said: “This organisation is saying: ‘It had ‘for the last two years [been] successfully avoiding having to apply for planning permission for HMOs by successfully submitting and obtaining Certificates of Existing Lawful Development (CLUED) for existing HMOs which have been operating continuously for over five years and are now immune from enforcement action’.”

Cllr Harkin described the claims as “alarming”.

“This is someone who is saying, ‘You know what, you see all the policies Council creates around HMOs - caps of 10% or 30% - whatever legislation exists, ignore it. It doesn’t matter. There is a way around it.

“It doesn’t matter that residents are agitated about HMOs or have concerns. It doesn’t matter. Here is a way for you to actually just completely avoid all the policies’ and they are doing it out in the open.

“These are the types of things we have been discussing - individuals, organisations, businesses actually trying to find ways of getting around policy, getting around anything Council might be trying to do, and this is not even hidden.

“It is being promoted on a website. This person has been here, at these Council meetings where we have had these debates.

“So Council is going to have to do something about this because this is unacceptable.

“This is the problem with ‘open for business’. This is actually making fools of the Council and making fools of residents who are trying to campaign around it.

“So, I think we are going to have to figure out how to deal with this CLUED issue so it doesn’t negate everything the Council has attempted to do.”

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SDLP councillor Rory Farrell described the contents of Cllr Harkin’s remarks as “concerning”.

“It is probably a matter for the planning committee and the enforcement team that we have employed to manage that activity,” he added.

Meanwhile, Derry campaigning residents’ group Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM) has urged Derry City and Strabane District Council to “act quickly to put in place safeguards to limit the growth and spread of HMOs”.

The group made the call in the wake of the proposed expansion of Ulster University’s Magee Campus.

CRAM has also called for a public meeting to be convened by the Ulster University Magee Taskforce to “create actions and schedules that will directly face the threat to the UU Magee neighbourhood and to head off social and infrastructural problems in the future”.

In a statement to The Derry News CRAM  called on Stephen Kelly, John Kelpie and Duncan Morrow as members of the Magee Taskforce to convene a public meeting to discuss student housing.

A spokesperson for the group said: "At a previous meeting in Magee in February 2025, Stephen Kelly the chair of the Taskforce asserted that many private developers were in talks to develop student accommodation. Since then CRAM believes there has been very little information on what large scale Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) is in the pipeline. At the same time CRAM has been campaigning to limit the proliferation of HMOS in the city especially around Magee as student numbers rise.

"CRAM believes the lack of suitable PBSA means that a huge rise in HMO type housing is being seen in areas adjacent to Magee and that this is pricing families out of the market to rent or buy local homes."

CRAM member Lillian Deery  said that the University needED to explain what it is doing about housing.

She added: “A whole new intake of students are now arriving and yet still we don’t see any plans for where they are going to live. At present private developers are making a fortune turning small terraced houses into lucrative HMO where they can make more money by renting individual rooms at expensive rates to students. This is driving families out and damaging the long-standing communities in areas around the Glen and Rosemount.

"The University can’t announce plans for an expansion and then not bother to develop appropriate housing for them.

“I want the Taskforce who are responsible for preparing the city for the expansion of student numbers to tell local people what is happening on housing. They aren’t communicating with us – apart from putting up lots of nice posters around the city. What use are posters to students with nowhere to live? Or families who can’t get a home to rent or buy near the city centres because the developers are snapping them all up.

"CRAM is calling on the Taskforce to convene a public meeting where local residents can be informed on what plans are in place to house students and to share their concerns about housing in the area."