20 July 2021
Oldham & Saddleworth Green Party are opposed to the conversion of shops, pubs, houses and other premises into HMOs in Bardsley, Failsworth and elsewhere in Oldham.
In response to the increasing number of premises in Oldham being converted into Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).
Local Green Party spokesman, Roger Pakeman, says:
“These developments don't provide a fit home for people. Living in one room in limited space, sharing a kitchen with 6 or 7 other people, or in some conversions sharing kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room, with no say in who you are sharing with, is not good for people’s health and well being.
We are also very concerned about the safety risk of sharing facilities in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic."
"It is people on low incomes who, through no choice, are trapped in this type of housing and living situation. There is a desperate need in Oldham for genuinely affordable housing for single people but it shouldn't be solved by putting people in unsuitable accommodation.
These developments are too often about maximising income and profit for the developers and landlords not about providing decent homes.”
The local Green Party also says that Oldham residents concerned about HMOs need to be clear that the increase in these developments has been enabled by the Conservative government’s ongoing dismantling of the planning system and removal of our rights to object.
“The changes they have made since 2010, including permitted development rights, have weighted the system on the side of developers restricting the right of local authorities and local communities to object to planning applications.
We need a stronger, more democratic planning system to build back better from Covid. To tackle poor, overcrowded and unaffordable housing, air pollution – all factors in the spread of Covid - and to regenerate our high streets to meet local needs. Instead the government is fatally weakening local planning and giving a free hand to developers and landowners to profit by deciding what’s built in Oldham.”
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