My road is now a student ghetto

Landlords have snapped up family homes and turned them into shared houses.

Now 49 of the 54 properties in her road are so-called houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) Mrs Barter says their uncontrolled spread has created a student ghetto and destroyed the character of the area.

"It now doesn't have any character, apart from in many parts being quite slummy," she said.

"There is no community spirit because so many long-term residents have fled.

"They've gone in great numbers in the past 15 years."

Mrs Barter, 67, says the fabric of the Polygon community has been torn apart, largely by the growing numbers of students.

"Although most of the residents in HMOs are pleasant people and have quite good relations with their neighbours, there is not the community pride and community feeling that you get with long-term residents "Some of them are beautiful inside but when the numbers get so great that the road is completely unbalanced it not only destroys the character of the area, but the character of the area becomes the awful mess you see every day."

"If it goes on getting worse and worse you have this image for ever and ever."

The change is sweeping Southamp-ton.

But now lobby groups battling the rise of HMOs - largely crammed full of students - are at last seeing the first signs of a fight back.

Southampton MP Alan Whitehead has presented a Bill to parliament to allow councils to clamp down on HMOs through a change in planning law.

The city council has started to consider bringing in additional licensing rules to ensure more of the homes are decent, safe and properly managed.

Councillors say they later want to build "areas of restraint" and HMO thresholds into an emerging planning framework.

Last night the Southampton Federation of Residents' Associations heard how HMOs were destroying the character of certain neighbourhoods.

Jerry Gillen, co-ordinator of Southampton HMO Lobby, said: "The way the council has allowed this to develop over the past 20 or 30 years is appalling.

"But I do believe that perhaps at last people are trying to work together on this issue."

He added: "I think the council is making an honest and genuine effort to do something - as long as they keep the momentum going."

Mr Gillen said the Polygon, Freemantle, Highfield, St Mary's and Ocean Village were all suffering from HMOs, which attracted higher crime rate, litter, noise and nuisance, battles for parking spaces and a general "slumification".

He said that if passed the measures would help stop the spread of HMOs and create a better balance across the city.

"Our objective now is to stop this getting any worse and bring back local control," he said.

Mr Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test, said the city's student population, which had grown from just a few thousand two decades ago to 28,000 today, had changed the whole character of neighbourhoods in the Bevois Valley, Portswood and Polygon areas of the city.

About half the students live in privately rented accommodation, according to unversity estimates.

Mr Whitehead's Bill to parliament would give local authorities greater control over the spread of HMOs and student housing.

It would require homeowners to seek planning permission to change a family home into one of multiple occupation, giving residents more control over the make-up of their community.

Planning permission is presently not required for HMOs of up to six people, but Dr Whitehead's Bill would require consent for change of use to an HMO if more than four people were to occupy the house. It would also bring the Housing Act 2004 definition of a "family" into planning law.

Mr Whitehead told MPs: "Under the current planning regime a landlord can simply buy a family house and promptly move in five or six student tenants."

Multiplied, this "studentification" had a "substantial impact" on the character of neighbourhoods, he said.

The Bill would allow local authorities to decide whether HMOs should have the go-ahead.

Mr Whitehead's proposal, which stands little chance of becoming law without government support, was backed by Southampton Itchen MP John Denham, who said: "HMOs provide relatively cheap accommodation for those unable to afford mortgages or higher rents.

"But they cannot be allowed to develop unregulated and any change from a family home into an HMO must be subject to planning permission if we are to sustain balanced communities in the city."

Since April last year landlords of larger HMOs - those above three storeys with five residents - already need a licence from the city council.

The council is now gathering evidence to apply to the government for powers to licence smaller properties.

Mrs Barter who heads Residents' Action, a community group in the Polygon, said the additional licensing would mean more landlords would be accountable.

City council Liberal Democrat spokesman for neighbourhoods and communities, Councillor Liz Mizon, launched a council consultation on the best licensing scheme to bring forward. "We were thinking about bringing it in for the whole city," she said.

However, some HMOs were needed because they housed largely poorer people in need. "We have to get the right balance," she said.

Southampton Solent University student president Tom Waterman said he would like to see fewer students per house and spread more evenly across the city to ease community relations.

"Anything to improve the quality of living for students is welcome," he said, adding that some landlords crammed in as many as eight students into houses leading to overflowing dustbins and inadequate bathroom facilities.

A spokesman for the University of Southampton said: "We expect all students to be aware of their responsibilities as neighbours.

"While we have not yet seen Mr Whitehead's proposals in detail, we broadly welcome any measures which increase the choice and improve the standard of private rented accommodation for students in the city and which foster positive relationships between students and local residents."