HC Deb 17 March 2004 vol 419 cc381-3W
Mr. Reed

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received on extending the definition of houses in multiple occupation to include student houses occupied by fewer titan five persons; and if he will make a statement. [161967]

Keith Hill

Representations have been received from the National Union Of Students (NUS),other student representative bodies, the Houses in Multiple Occupation Network and some local authorities to extend the scope of mandatory licensing of HMOs to include student houses occupied by fewer than five persons.

The Housing Bill provides that accommodation shared by students (but excluding halls of residence managed by the university) will be classified as HMOs. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has made it clear that the scope of the mandatory licensing of HMOs, as prescribed by secondary legislation, is currently proposed to apply to HMOs that are three storeys and more and occupied by at least five persons who constitute more than one household. This will cover a great many shared student houses.

The Government has always stressed that the provisions in the Housing Bill are concerned with dealing with the worst standards of management and physical conditions in the private rented sector, particularly the larger HMOs that present the greatest risks. However, the Bill does give local authorities a discretionary power to license smaller HMOs if there is a need to do so, in order that the welfare, health and safety of the occupiers are protected.

Mr. Reed

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much is being paid to Charnwood borough council through the Revenue Support Grant in 2003–04 to compensate for council tax revenue lost as a result of the exemption for houses in multiple occupation occupied solely by students; and if he will make a statement. [162015]

Mr. Raynsford

It is not possible to give a meaningful value for the total additional revenue support grant that has been allocated to Charnwood as a result of the council tax base reduction because of the number of student exemptions.

That is because, to do so, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would first need to calculate a tax base that included the properties currently excluded because of student exemptions for all authorities. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any information about whether these properties would have otherwise been subject to different discounts or exemptions (e.g. single-person discount).

This new tax base would then need to be used to recalculate Revenue Support Grant. This is likely to result in a different distribution of grant before floors and ceilings to authorities. The existing levels of floors and ceilings may then be inappropriate with this new distribution; it would certainly change the scaling factors on grant increases above the floor published in the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2004–05.

However, for 2002–03 an approximate calculation is shown as follows. The number of properties covered by student exemptions is no longer collected by band of property. The latest year for which this information was available was 2002–03. In 2002–03 Charnwood had 512 class N exemptions (for dwellings occupied only by students, the foreign spouses of students, or school and college leavers). This is the equivalent of about 400 Band D properties. The Standard Tax Element for shire districts for 2002–03 was £97.2073276605. Therefore under the assumptions specified in the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2002–, Charnwood would have been able to raise a further £38,904.53 had these properties not had student exemptions. An equivalent amount of RSG before floors and ceilings was therefore provided to Charnwood with respect to the properties with student exemptions.