Complaints about rogue landlords buying up properties in East Reading under 'buy-to-let' and converting them - often without planning permission or building regulation approval - for letting to students, not caring about refuse collection and other detrimental impacts on the lives of neighbours, have led Reading and District Labour Party to put together a 12-point plan (below), aimed both at tackling rogue landlords and at meeting the needs of students at the University of Reading and Thames Valley University.

Labour's Parliamentary spokesperson for Reading East, Anneliese Dodds, who asked students at the University's Freshers' Fair to sign a petition urging action against rogue landlords, says:

"The problems caused by crowded, unsafe, and unhygienic Houses in Multiple Occupation have become acute in some areas of East Reading, particularly around Cemetery Junction. I am delighted that the local Labour Party has acknowledged the scale of these problems and committed itself to a twelve-point action plan which I think does cover all the bases.

Let's hope the plan prompts both Reading Borough Council and the University of Reading to take the action against rogue landlords that both students and local residents have been waiting for".

Leader of the Council Jo Lovelock says:

"I welcome the work that Anneliese and others have done to analyse the issues and come up with a plan that the Council can now discuss not just with the two Universities but also with local communities who are badly affected by the spread, particularly, of sub-standard HMOs.

There are no quick fixes here but I do believe that working together we will be able to make a real difference".

Tackling rogue landlords, Meeting students' needs: a 12-point plan

Many streets in East Reading have seen rogue landlords buying up properties under 'buy-to-let' and converting them - often without planning permission or building regulation approval - for letting to students, not caring about refuse collection and other environmental factors or the detrimental effects on the lives of neighbours.

Local residents, and local Labour Party branches, have been pressing Anneliese Dodds, Labour's parliamentary spokesperson for Reading East, and local Labour Councillors for action. Responding to this challenge, Reading and District Labour Party has developed an action plan in two parts, one to tackle the worst excesses of the rogue landlords, and the other to ensure safe, decent and affordable accommodation for students, whom we welcome to our town and into our communities, while looking to develop more mixed and balanced communities - including homes for families and first-time buyers as well as for the more transient student population.

The Party is calling for:

1. Co-ordinating the efforts of Council licensing, planning and environmental health officers in recognition of the fact that many Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are in breach of more than one set of regulations

2. Rigorous enforcement by the Council of the present requirement that all HMOs that are 3 or more stories high (including basements and attics in residential use) and have five or more occupants should be licensed, in order to ensure they meet legal standards and are properly managed

3. Regular consideration by the Council as to whether to extend licensing to other privately-rented properties, for example in areas where there is a problem with anti-social behaviour

4. Commitment of additional resources by the Council to the planning enforcement section to allow it to act speedily and effectively against HMOs which do not have planning permission

5. Recognising that servicing an HMO costs the Council more than servicing the family property that was there before and looking at ways of recovering those additional costs from landlords.

6. Issuing guidance on the Council's website and to community groups and Neighbourhood Action Groups about the statutory requirements on HMOs, about how to find out whether a particular HMO has the necessary licence and planning permission, and about how to report possible breaches

7. When an HMO ceases to trade and becomes vacant, acting speedily under the Council’s Empty Homes Strategy to bring the property back into normal residential use

8. Extending the Council’s Housing Strategy, now out for consultation, to include recognition of the need for student accommodation in Reading and to provide a framework within which it can be planned

9. Pressing the University of Reading to work, certainly prior to any move to vacate their Bulmershe site, with the Council and Thames Valley University (TVU) on a joint University Housing Strategy aimed at ensuring availability of sufficient safe, well-maintained and affordable accommodation for students in Reading

10. Working with the University of Reading and TVU on a Landlord Accreditation Scheme that will seek to improve the standards of private accommodation offered to students in Reading

11. Establishing a Student Accommodation Partnership including representatives from the Council, the two Universities and their student unions, major providers, and local community groups to contribute to and then progress the University Housing Strategy, addressing issues as they arise

12. Consulting on the introduction of resultant new planning policies that would seek to restrict the concentration of HMOs in particular streets and promote more mixed and balanced communities