New city masterplan will cut number of HMOs

Traditional shared student rental accommodation in a university city is to be restricted, following the approval of a housing masterplan.

Oxford’s Sites and Housing Plan has been approved by a government inspector and is now due to be adopted by the city council.

As well as containing provision for new development sites, it lays down a new policy that Houses in Multiple Occupation – typically, shared student accommodation in older, converted properties – can only account for a maximum of one in five houses in any 100-metre stretch of road.

The policy confirms what city planners are already doing when they deal with new applications for HMOs.

The housing masterplan makes clear that its preference is for purpose-built, new student accommodation in quieter streets.

Such new student accommodation is provided for in the masterplan, and its developers will have to make financial contributions toward affordable homes in the city.

The new student accommodation blocks, as with the other new developments envisaged in the masterplan, will have to have their own on-site renewable energy generation or low-carbon technologies.