The Director of Planning and Regulation submitted a report to Cabinet to seek approval from members to conduct a statutory consultation to renew the Additional HMO Licensing Scheme in 2026. 

Cabinet is recommended to:

1.    Agreeto proceed with a statutory 10-week consultation on the basis that it is necessary to renew the licensing scheme in its entirety for a further 5 years.

Cabinet resolved to:

1. Agree to proceed with a statutory 10-week consultation on the basis that it is necessary to renew the licensing scheme in its entirety for a further 5 years.

The Director of Planning and Regulation had submitted a report to Cabinet to seek approval from members to conduct a statutory consultation to renew the Additional HMO Licensing Scheme in 2026. 

Councillor Linda Smith presented the report. She said that they should be proud of the fact that every privately let home needs a license in Oxford. She discussed the variety of schemes for different types of homes. She said that the scheme helps to drive up the standard of privately rented homes in the city. Councillor Smith noted that this was seeking approval to take the policy out for consultation, not to approve the policy itself.

Courtney Bennett, Regulatory Services Manager, said that this report was to approve the policy to go out to consultation, not to approve the policy itself. She said that the scheme had room for improvement as there were consistent issues that they would like to address through the consultation. She said that the consultation would involve a range of engagement approaches with tenant groups. She said that the outcome of the consultation would be back before Cabinet in the spring.

Councillor Hollingsworth expressed his support for the scheme, as it had delivered a much better stock of HMOs across the city. He said that he would be interested to know if they had a sense of how many properties had switched from HMOS to short term lets to avoid complying with the scheme.

The Regulatory Services Manager said that they did not have specific data. She noted that the short term lets were a priority for their planning enforcement team and last months they issued 26 notices. She said that in September they’d had a successful case where they took a short let back to the private rental sector and would look for more data on that issue.

Cabinet discussed that a national policy limiting the number of short let properties in a city would be useful and Councillor Linda Smith said that they would continue to argue for that.

Cabinet also discussed the possibility that the scheme became so successful to the point where it was no longer necessary. Given the structural challenges facing housing in Oxford, Cabinet agreed that this was an unlikely outcome in the near future. 

Cabinet resolved to:

1. Agree to proceed with a statutory 10-week consultation on the basis that it is necessary to renew the licensing scheme in its entirety for a further 5 years.