Scandal of Newham's secret community
From:
Richard Stubbs
Date:
Jun 01 17:28 UTC
Short link
Tim asks what is going on and are there really illegal homes springing
up throughout Newham.
You will note the article referred to mentions additional building not
buildings, this is almost certainly refering to adding extra rooms on
to the back of an existing property. This is an activity for which
permission should be sought from the Council but I think its only
where properties are let out on a room by room basis by a private
landlord that this amounts to new "homes" rather than simply larger
ones.
There are quite strong controls over multioccupied property and if
they are 5 or more people living as more than one household in a
property the property needs to be licensed by the Council. There are
very strong penalties for not being licenced namely a £20,000 fine and
the right for tenants to apply for a refund of rent. I would be
interested to know if this had ever been enforced.
This said in areas of London where gardens are bigger than they tend
to be in Newham developers can build new properties in gardens and
Councils cannot object although building controls still apply. A quick
google shows this is a topical issue with a move to introduce a bill
to protect gardens recorded in Hansard for 18/3/08 (by a coincidence
of recursion the speech refers to google itself!) The second reading
is on 13th June.
.