Dealing with bids to increase the permitted capacity of existing houses of multiple occupation in Southampton is “a real bane of our lives at times,” a senior councillor has admitted.

The chair of Southampton City Council’s planning and rights of way panel said the control authorities currently have in this area is “quite limited”.

Cllr John Savage made the comments during discussions on an application to change the class of an HMO in the city to allow it to house two more residents.

A house in multiple occupancy (HMO) is a property rented out to a minimum of three people who are not from a single household, with shared facilities including a kitchen and bathroom.  They are often referred to as house shares.

The change of use request to permit eight people instead of the existing HMO limit of six at 1 Brighton Road, just off The Avenue, was approved unanimously at a Civic Centre meeting on Tuesday, March 12.

The application went before the panel after it received 12 objections from residents.

An objector speaking at the meeting said 10 of the 34 properties in the road were HMOs. She said if the proposal was granted it would create a precedent for other landlords, adding that there were already issues of noise, litter and late-night disturbance in the neighbourhood.

Addressing the panel, the applicant from HMO (Southampton) Ltd said he was sympathetic to some of the concerns raised and he encouraged neighbours to report any issues to them.

He added that permission was sought to utilise the existing flooring area to potentially accommodate two extra persons.

In his summing up, Cllr Savage said: “Not withstanding everything that the objectors have said here, one of the key problems is that we have only got the power to control an application for a new HMO and because it is not a new HMO, we can’t control it.

“I think there may well be some future plans to prevent the cumulative impact of enlargement of HMOs that we don’t have at the moment.

“If a HMO is a HMO and it is appropriate in terms of size and scale to be able to become a sui generis [class of HMO], we can’t stop it becoming a HMO because it already is one and that’s just the truth of it.

“On the basis of that, it is very difficult to come up with any material conditions around which we could potentially refuse this.”

The chair added: “In planning terms, it is a real bane of our lives at times that this happens. What we can control is sometimes quite limited.”