Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of legislation on the licencing of houses of multiple occupation.

All local authorities are required to license Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in which five or more people from two or more households share facilities. Through additional licensing, local authorities also have the power to require HMOs to be licensed where there are three or more unrelated people sharing facilities.

Although there has been no formal assessment of legislation on licensing HMOs, the Government has undertaken an assessment of selective licensing which found that, when implemented well and part of a coordinated enforcement strategy, selective licensing is an effective tool for tackling the issues it is focused on address.