Derry HMO cap to be reduced from 30% to 10%

Derry City and Strabane District Council’s (DCSDC) Planning Committee has voted unanimously to reduce its cap on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) from 30% to 10%.

The proposal was made by Cllr Christopher Jackson (Sinn Féin) at Thursday’s Planning Committee meeting and was seconded by Cllr Conor Heaney (Sinn Féin).

As a result, DCSDC will “change HOU 13 from the interim position of 30% to 10%” and will “engage with DfI on the issue as soon as practically possible”.

The decision followed Council’s receipt of a Department for Infrastructure (DfI) response regarding its policy on Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

DCSDC had requested clarification from DfI regarding the process of amendments to its Local Development Plan (LDP) 2032 Plan Strategy (PS) in relation to Council’s HMO policy, on January 9, 2026.

Councillors sought to reduce the HMO cap in any given Council area from the 30% agreed in the LDP to to 10%.

Essentially, DfI advised “robust evidence” needed to be provided by DCSDC for any revised policy, in this case HMOs. It also said DCSDC a revised policy would require “public consultation”.

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Councillors discussed the DfI response, received on March 3, at their Planning Committee meeting on Thursday (March 19, 2026).

The need for clarification arose from Policy HOU 13 in DCSDC’s LDP strategy which applies an interim transitional position of not permitting any more than 30% of any of the houses within any street to be granted for further HMO development, until the Local Policies Plan is adopted. This policy aims to manage density and prevent over-concentration.

Council wanted to ascertain the practical and legal steps in making a change to this interim position as councillors wanted the percentage of HMOs per street to be no more than 10%.

The DfI response said it was essentially up to DCSDC to “assess whether an immediate review of the PS Policy HOU 13 to substitute 30% HMO interim target with a 10% HMO cap is required”.

It added: “This will involve using the power under section 14 (1) (a) of the 2011 Act and follow the process of Part 2 of the Act, as legislated for under section 14 (c).

“The Department can confirm as this is the revision of an adopted PS, in procedural terms, this would mean returning to Section 7 of Part 2 of the Act and repeating the process.”

DfI added: “If proceeding with a revision under section 14, the Council will be required to revisit the evidence and update accordingly, providing robust evidence for any revised policy, particularly given the recent adoption of a PS that was found to be sound.

“As indicated above, the monitoring of such information and the implementation of the existing policy framework will be particularly important to this evidence. 

“Any PS revision can be focused to deal with a single issue or wider to deal with a variety of policy issue(s) although a more complex review will likely lead to a longer timeframe overall.

“A PS revision will need to demonstrate how the adopted planning policy, and current HMO threshold, undermines the objectives of the PS, which was found to be sound, and detail reasoned evidence for the revision. 

“The revised policy will require public consultation to meet legislative requirements and follow the plan preparation process … [and] when the Council believe the PS is ready to be examined, a submission should be made to the Department to undertake an Independent Examination (IE). Subsequently the Department will consider findings and direct the Council subject to the PS revision being found sound at IE.”