A CITY MP has launched a controversial bid to prevent areas of Southampton from becoming student ghettos.
Alan Whitehead is attempting to stop more family homes from being turned into multiple occupancy properties that house students and migrant workers.
He is acting after residents complained that in some roads as many as 80 per cent of homes are now in multiple occupancy.
But his Bill before Parliament to give councils the power to stop landlords buying up family homes and turning them into student accommodation is bound to prove controversial with the city's two universities. Students bring millions of pounds into the economy of the city and migrant workers also seek cheap accommodation.
The move is backed by residents in the Polygon area. Local Lorraine Barter said the community had already lost its character.
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