I’m an HMO landlord – here’s why Reform’s ban won’t work

Blocking HMOs could also lead to landlords trying to claim six-figure sums in compensation, they say.

‘Bloody-minded’ Reform will impose HMO controls, warns Farage

Farage claimed during the local election campaign that asylum seekers being removed from hotels were being placed in HMOs, and promised that “bloody-minded” Reform councils would stand up against HMO planning applications.

The Reform-run Durham County Council has already led the way with its widespread planning crackdown, imposing an Article 4 order across the whole borough last year.

This order requires landlords to seek planning permission to convert their properties into HMOs, allowing councils the right to refuse consent and making it much harder for landlords to convert traditional homes into HMOs.

In St Helens in Merseyside – where Farage’s party overturned a Labour majority this month – Reform has promised to bring in an Article 4 order to “force all HMOs to go through planning”.

Elsewhere, Reform councillors like George Madgwick in Portsmouth and George Finch in Warwickshire have led local opposition to HMOs housing asylum seekers.

Madgwick previously told The i Paper it was “despicable” and “morally corrupt” for landlords to sign asylum accommodation deals with Home Office contractors.

Reform MP Lee Anderson previously said HMOs were “filling our streets full of wrong ’uns”, suggesting a Reform-led Government could introduce further licensing requirements for HMO owners.

‘Unintended consequences’ of restricting HMOs

Wendy Whittaker-Large is a Reform councillor for Alsager Town Council in Cheshire who owns HMO flats, which she says she rents out to professionals. She also runs the HMO Action Group, an advisory group for landlords.

She urged party colleagues to step back and properly understand the sector before imposing new policies, telling The i Paper she had written to Reform deputy leader Richard Tice to warn against any “draconian” crackdown by councils.

“Restricting this kind of housing would be a backwards step,” she said of Article 4 orders. “It seems draconian. I worry it would be a de facto ban [on new HMOs].

“Reform-run councils may not understand the unintended consequences. If you squeeze supply that’s needed, where do people live?”

Many students and professionals “need an affordable shared house”, Whittaker-Large added, arguing restricting supply of HMOs could push up rents for an entire area.

Councils often use HMOs for temporary accommodation, so local planning blocks could lead to “more homelessness, more people turning up to councils for emergency help”, she also warned.

Reform UK did not respond to a request for comment.

Asylum housing ‘only small part’ of HMO sector

Paul Preston and Sylwester Noga, whose property business owns several large HMOs in Chorley in Lancashire, said they have faced misinformation and abuse in recent years as HMOs become a political lightning rod.

The landlords say they’ve had far-right TikTokers filming outside their properties, even though they say their HMOs are let to professionals, not asylum seekers.

“Not all HMOs are the same – asylum contracts are only a small part of it,” Preston said. “Some in Reform don’t seem to be making that distinction.”

Squeezing the HMO sector will “reduce much-needed supply and push up rents”, Preston said, also voicing fears of a “de facto ban” by Reform councils on HMOs.

Mark Wade, a Reform councillor at Lancashire County Council – which his party won last year – has claimed that the region has “more illegal immigrants dumped on it than anywhere else in the country”.

Wade previously told The i Paper that it was “unfair” for all HMOs to be “tarred with the same brush”, but said the “root cause” of the increase in HMOs was asylum seekers.

Renters’ Rights Act pushing some into asylum deals

Almost 73,000 asylum seekers are housed in “dispersal accommodation” in communities across the country, according to 2025 Home Office statistics. But the figures don’t break down how many HMOs were used.

Even if the vast majority of these homes are HMOs, it would still represent a relatively small proportion of the 497,000 HMOs estimated to exist across England and Wales.

However, property experts said landlords are becoming increasingly attracted to asylum housing deals with Home Office contractors such as Serco and Mears.

Landlords previously told The i Paper they had turned to these contracts at least partly because of the new Renters’ Rights Act because they are more lucrative and easier to manage.

Since the Home Office’s contractors take over responsibility for moving migrants in and out, landlords don’t have to worry about Labour’s new eviction controls.

Whittaker-Large suggested that the Government could create a new HMO planning category specifically for asylum accommodation to allow local blocks on that kind of housing.

“The problem isn’t HMOs,” she said. “The problem is we haven’t built enough houses, and huge levels of immigration.”

Reform UK warned of costly compensation claims

It could also be expensive and time-consuming for Reform-run councils to issue blanket planning refusals, said Rosalyn Trotman, a partner at Thrings law firm.

Trotman, who works in the planning team, said it can be “potentially costly” for councils to remove HMO development rights with less than 12 months’ notice.

She said her firm was in touch with rejected HMO developers looking for “six-figure sum” compensation. If compensation can’t be agreed, cases can be escalated to land tribunals, she added.

Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, said he hoped councils won by Reform won’t impose blanket bans on new HMOs.

“We have a housing crisis in every part of the country. Cracking down on HMOs and squeezing the sector won’t help with that.”

“HMOs aren’t bad,” said Xavier Archbold, who owns four HMOs in Leeds that he lets out to professionals. “They give people a useful, cost-effective housing option, which is important during the current cost of living crisis.”