On the 28th of January, a motion was brought to Birmingham City Council’s meeting of Full Council by opposition councillors calling for the acceleration of the establishment of the Supported Housing Advisory Panel & bringing legislation on exempt accommodation into line with planning regulations for HMOs. Birmingham Local Conservatives have been campaigning for exempt accommodation to be brought into the planning system, to allow greater control over their location and numbers. We were pleased to support the motion with an amendment calling for the Council to “refocus its Property Acquisition Strategy for Temporary Accommodation to focus on the acquisition of exempt accommodation and badly run HMOs to protect Family Homes”. The amended motion would have required the Council to support taking badly run exempt accommodation and HMOs off the market and protecting family homes by amending the current policy of buying homes for temporary accommodation. Birmingham Labour voted against the amendment, only winning by a narrow margin of 3 after 14 Labour Members declared interests in privately rented properties, HMOs and Exempt Accommodation before the debate.
The Council’s Property Acquisition Strategy is a programme which uses government grants and capital funding to buy up properties for use as temporary accommodation, reducing the demand for expensive B&B accommodation. When it was introduced, Birmingham Local Conservatives called for it to target the purchase of problematic Exempt Accommodation, rather than taking much-needed Family Homes off the market, but the Labour Cabinet declined to adopt this approach. The amendment to the Council motion called on all Labour members, including backbenchers to support this sensible policy, but they chose to vote in favour of continuing to convert family homes and leave Exempt Accommodation in place.
Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives, Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington) said:
The Labour Administration must refocus its acquisition strategy — prioritising tackling badly run exempt accommodation and HMOs and protecting scarce family homes. This approach would improve existing substandard properties, reducing the burden on communities, and ensuring that family homes remain available for those young families and aspiring homeowners. Sensible, targeted investment, after years of underfunding by this Labour Council. will deliver better outcomes for both vulnerable residents and hardworking taxpayers.
Cllr Alden added:
In my own ward of Erdington, we had a case where two properties were available to buy on the same street, one a family home, the other a problem causing Exempt Accommodation Property. Had the Council bought the exempt accommodation unit, this would have solved three problems at once, removing all the problems associated with the Exempt Property, providing temporary accommodation for homeless Birmingham families, and keeping available a much-needed family house for a new family to make their home. Sadly the Council chose to buy up the family home, leaving the Exempt property in place. Birmingham Labour’s priorities on this, as with so many matters, are completely wrong and out of tune with the needs of Birmingham residents.
