Drawn to the special attention of the House
Draft Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum-Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023
Date laid: 30 March 2023
Parliamentary procedure: affirmative
These draft Regulations propose to exempt accommodation provided by the Home Office for asylum-seekers in “houses of multiple occupation” (HMO) in England from the requirement to have a local authority HMO licence under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004 for a period of two years. The proposed exemption is part of a range of initiatives which the Government announced in March 2023 to deal with current migration issues, in particular to end the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers. Concerns have been raised in the House about the quality of the housing used for asylum seekers. We take some assurance from additional information provided by the Government that, despite the temporary exemption from the HMO licensing requirement, other equivalent statutory requirements and quality standards will continue to apply, and we note that the Government have committed to monitoring the impact of the policy through regular meetings with local authorities. The House may wish to seek further assurance from the Minister, however, that the proposed policy will not lead to poor-quality, unsafe or inappropriate housing being used for asylum seekers, especially where these may be vulnerable, during the two-year exemption period. The House may also wish to ask the Minister to publish statistics on the number of asylum seekers who are placed in unlicensed HMO accommodation and to share them with Parliament.
The draft Regulations are drawn to the special attention of the House on the ground that they are politically or legally important and give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House.
1.These draft Regulations have been laid before Parliament by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) with an Explanatory Memorandum (EM), with the Home Office exercising policy oversight. This report refers to DLUHC and the Home Office depending on which of the two departments provided the specific information used in this report.
The changes proposed by this instrument
2.The draft Regulations propose to exempt accommodation provided by the Home Office for asylum-seekers in “houses of multiple occupation” (HMO) in England from the requirement to have a local authority HMO licence under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004 for a period of two years. HMO licences set out standards and requirements to ensure that HMO are not overcrowded and do not pose risks to the health or safety of occupiers or impact adversely on local communities. According to DLUHC, the aim of the temporary exemption is to remove a perceived barrier to finding more sustainable and cost-effective accommodation than is currently provided in hotels.
3.The proposed exemption is part of a range of initiatives which the Government announced in March 2023 to deal with current migration issues, and, in particular, to end the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers.1 While the March announcement also raised the possibility of housing asylum seekers in other forms of accommodation, such as vessels and barracks, the Department says that the changes proposed by this instrument only cover “any new accommodation used for supported asylum seekers where a HMO licence would otherwise be required”.
4.The proposed exemption is to apply to HMO which start being used as asylum accommodation between the day the instrument comes into force and 30 June 2024. The exemption from the HMO licensing requirement would then apply for a two-year period following the date the accommodation starts being used as asylum accommodation.
Policy rationale
5.The EM states that “the Home Office is seeking to house more asylum seekers across local authorities, and more quickly in appropriate and cost-effective accommodation”. The Government have a statutory obligation to provide support and accommodation to an asylum seeker who would otherwise be destitute whilst their claim for asylum is considered. Since September 2019, the Home Office has discharged this obligation through Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC) with three providers2 which are the primary providers of asylum accommodation. The Department says that much of the dispersed asylum accommodation, especially that used for single individuals, is currently provided through HMO, with around 6,000 HMO properties accommodating 28,000 asylum seekers.
6.According to DLUHC, the AASC providers who act on behalf of the Home Office have raised concerns that HMO licensing regulation is posing a barrier to acquiring more properties across local authorities. DLUHC says that this is because there are mandatory licensing conditions which must be attached to all HMO licences, and because local authorities can include additional conditions and set higher minimum room sizes, for example for groups of asylum seekers who do not know each other. The EM states that: “The Home Office is concerned that asylum seekers accommodated at taxpayer expense should not be entitled to more spacious accommodation than the national standard that applies to everyone else”, and that “more generous standards, particularly around room sizes and facilities, limit supply by restricting the number of people that can be housed in each property and drive the cost to the taxpayer”.
7.The temporary exemption from the HMO licensing requirement therefore aims to “remove barriers that may cause a delay or challenge to acquire more sustainable and cost-effective accommodation”. Under the proposed exemption, any HMO procured by an AASC provider for occupation by asylum-seekers would not need to be licensed for a period of two years.
Practical impact of the proposed exemption
8.The Department says that as local authorities will no longer receive HMO licensing fees during the two-year exemption period, and as the changes may also impact on demand for other local authority services, the Home Office will provide funding to local authorities in recognition of the costs associated with accommodating asylum seekers in their area.
9.Concerns have been raised in the House about the quality of the accommodation used for asylum seekers.3 We asked the Department about the impact of the temporary exemption on health and safety and the quality of housing, including in terms of the size of the accommodation, availability of bathroom facilities, proximity to health facilities and/or schools. The Home Office told us that:
“The [AASCs] mirror the national standards that underpin licencing in relation to the size of rooms and the ratio of kitchen and bathroom facilities. These will be maintained and remain in force. In addition, the Home Office will still maintain its consultation process with local government on the sourcing of all asylum accommodation, which involves consulting [local authorities] on the availability of local services before procuring accommodation for use as asylum accommodation.”
10.Asked whether the proposed exemption could lead to lower fire and other safety standards, the Department confirmed that lower standards would not apply:
“The [AASCs] contain rigorous standards to which we hold our providers, all of which either meet or exceed the Decent Homes Standard. Further, all accommodation providers must meet statutory and regulatory requirements.”
11.We asked whether women, children or other asylum seekers who may be vulnerable would be housed in unlicensed HMO accommodation. The Home Office told us that:
“The vast majority of HMO currently in use as asylum accommodation are used for single adults rather than families with children. Intended occupants would be asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and would require accommodation and support whilst we consider their claim for international protection.”
12.The Home Office also confirmed that the temporary exemption from the HMO licensing requirement would not affect the way asylum seekers are allocated across local authorities and would not impact on any local consultation processes:
“Allocation of asylum seekers to accommodation is undertaken by [Home Office] Service Providers based on whether they are part of a family or single. The current allocation process is not anticipated to change in light of the proposed temporary exemption to HMO licencing.
Local authorities conduct local consultations when looking to introduce additional licensing (which requires HMOs with 3 or more people from two or more households to be licenced) but do not consult on a case-by-case basis for individual properties and local communities do not play a role in LAs consideration of whether to award a licence.”
13.According to the Home Office, an HMO licence may only be granted if the licence holder is a “fit and proper” person. We asked whether the temporary exemption from the HMO licensing requirement could lead to rogue and other unsuitable landlords providing accommodation. The Home Office explained that AASC providers are contractually bound to meet the requirements for the provision of accommodation:
“Those providers do use other providers of accommodation to deliver those services and that can include private landlords. However, all of our requirements as set out in the contract apply to our accommodation providers and any sub-contractors (landlords) that they use. This includes the standards we set, including standards of behaviour, all of which is contained within the published contracts online. This does cover the checks we expect on people who have access to our data or who have direct contact with our service users.
Accommodation providers will undertake Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) checks on landlords where appropriate, checking previous convictions and whether there are any issues of concern that they would not want to use that particular individual. For larger companies checks may also include checks on company directors, as well as checks for alerts in relation to money laundering or modern slavery, though that list isn’t exhaustive.”
14.The Home Office referred us to the AASC Statement of Requirements which sets out all the requirements in relation to the provision of asylum accommodation that AASC providers have to meet.4 Asked whether there were any standards in HMO licences which were not covered by the AASC, the Home Office responded:
“No, the [Home Office] is committed to providing accommodation that is safe, high quality, and meets housing standards set out in the Housing Act 1985.”
15.We also asked whether the HMO licensing regime involved local authority inspections of accommodation and whether the temporary exemption meant that such inspections would no longer be carried out. The Home Office told us that under the existing regime, licenced HMOs are inspected by the local authority at least once during the five-year licensing period, adding that the Home Office is:
“ …looking to enhance its assurance inspection regime to be carried out by qualified inspectors to ensure that the [AASC] containing rigorous requirements on property standards, including fixtures and safety features, are being delivered.
The [Home Office] inspection team is being expanded to assure that national housing quality standards are met and suitably qualified inspectors will therefore undertake an inspection of the HMO property exempt from licencing, at least once during the two-year exemption period.”
16.Asked how many asylum seekers the Government expected to place in unlicensed HMO accommodation, the Home Office told us that:
“At this time we do not have any robust figures for the number of people that may be placed into new HMOs post these changes. This exemption is part of a number of initiatives aimed at bringing to an end the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.”
17.We also asked whether the Government would collect, publish and share with Parliament statistics on the number of asylum seekers who are placed in accommodation which has been exempted from the HMO licensing requirement. The Home Office responded that it would “consider sharing data as part of its monitoring and review process”. To enable Parliamentary scrutiny, the House may wish to ask the Minister to make a commitment to publish the statistics and share them with Parliament.
Conclusion
18.We take some assurance from the Government’s responses to our questions that, despite the two-year exemption from the HMO licensing requirement, other equivalent statutory requirements and quality standards will continue to apply, and we note that the Government have committed to monitoring the impact of the policy through regular meetings of the Home Office with DLUHC and local authorities. The House may wish to seek further assurance from the Minister, however, that the policy will not lead to poor-quality, unsafe or inappropriate housing being used for asylum seekers, especially where these may be vulnerable, during the two-year exemption period. The House may also wish to ask the Minister to publish statistics on the number of asylum seekers who are placed in unlicensed HMO accommodation and to share them with Parliament.
1 HC Deb, 29 March 2023, cols 1017–1037 [Commons chamber].
2 The three providers are Mears in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber, Serco in the North West and the Midlands, and Clearsprings Ready Homes in Wales and the South.
3 See, for example, HL Deb, 16 January 2023, cols 1634–1636 [Lords Chamber].
4 Home Office, ‘Asylum Accommodation and Support, Schedule 2, Statement of Requirements’ (September 2019): http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2018–1112/AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf [accessed 25 April 2023].