{"id":492,"date":"2026-10-16T05:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T04:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/?p=492"},"modified":"2026-10-16T07:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T06:42:55","slug":"hmos-and-hysteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/hmos-and-hysteria\/","title":{"rendered":"HMOs and Hysteria"},"content":{"rendered":"

HMOs are a feature of housing policy discussion for various reasons.\u00a0 They have been subject to licensing regimes, for example, because of concerns about health and safety in them.\u00a0 They are known to have higher fire risks.\u00a0 In Wales, planning permission is required to create new HMOs.\u00a0 HMOs also provide accommodation to disparate populations, like students or people who are only entitled to the single room reference rent.\u00a0 They also provide accommodation for those with support needs \u2013 indeed, they are a critical part of that provision.\u00a0 There is a rather fantastic briefing<\/a> by the veritable \u00a0Gwennan Hardy of Senedd Research team that was published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

However, it is also the case that HMOs raise hysteria levels, as we know from the outrageous scenes which are recorded across the media.\u00a0 I even read yesterday about some so-called English nationalists unlawfully entering the home of somebody and stupidly (because, let\u2019s face it, these people are pretty stupid) posting that unlawful entry to a social media account.\u00a0 It\u2019s at moments like this when I despair about what we have become (and, as I\u2019m not feeling well today, that despair is accentuated).\u00a0 The hysteria has, of course, reached the Senedd, as Reform UK members proposed a motion (on 7th<\/sup> October)<\/a> (also discussed here<\/a>) that the Senedd<\/p>\n

\u201c1. Calls on the Welsh Government to overhaul houses in multiple occupation licensing and social-housing eligibility rules to end access to HMOs and social housing for foreign nationals, including working with the UK Government where necessary.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have posted a lot on the eligibility rules and don\u2019t intend to do so again here.\u00a0 For me, the idea of \u201cforeign nationals\u201d being excluded is so inimical to anything that I can conceive as being part of our \u201csocial\u201d that it feels impossible to provide comment.\u00a0 Nor do I know what a \u201cforeign national\u201d actually is.\u00a0 Francesca O\u2019Brien MS, in leading the debate seemed to suggest that a \u201cforeign national was somebody who is not part of \u201cthe people of Wales and the United Kingdom. We should be prioritising our own families, our veterans and those who have contributed to our great country\u201d.\u00a0 When pressed by Dafydd Trystan Davies to identify \u201care you talking about nationality as self-recorded or are you talking about citizenship and UK passport holders\u201d \u2013 Ms O\u2019Brien answered \u201cthe latter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given the dire state of housing and the rise in housing need, it is hardly a surprise that \u201cforeign nationals\u201d – many of whom are discriminated against in the housing market and, we know from research going right the way back, tend to occupy the cheapest accommodation \u2013 find themselves in HMOs and other risky accommodation.<\/p>\n

Stop the hysteria and let\u2019s talk about how we can make this type of accommodation the safest it can be, and (my campaign) have greater enforcement of the existing law to ensure health and safety in the home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HMOs are a feature of housing policy discussion for various reasons.\u00a0 They have been subject to licensing regimes, for example, because of concerns about health and safety in them.\u00a0 They […]","protected":false},"author":7123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asylum"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/housing-law-wales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}