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Search the Public Notice PortalPlans for a house in multiple occupation (HMO) for up to nine people have been rejected by Redbridge Council.
The owner of 32 Avondale Crescent, in Ilford, had applied to convert the two-storey, semi-detached home.
HMOs are similar to blocks of flats, where people from separate households or families each occupy an individual room in a house. However, they share facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms.
Each room in the proposed HMO would have come with its own en-suite bathroom, but they would have shared a lounge and kitchen.
Architecture firm Bluelime, acting on behalf of the application, said in a design statement submitted to the council that the proposals “aimed to create modern, comfortable, and sustainable housing units that take full advantage of the site’s location”.
Redbridge councillors have previously said the borough faces a housing shortage – a strain felt across London – and Bluelime argued the nine-person HMO was “needed” and met all of Redbridge’s standards and requirements.
However, the planning department shot down the plans after five weeks of deliberation.
Officers argued the HMO would “fail to preserve the area’s character” and lead to the loss of a family-sized home – defined as having three or more bedrooms – without mitigating for such a loss.
The latest figures show that 68 per cent of people on the council’s housing register require a three-bed home, according to a planning officer’s report, and the council says it would place greater weight on preserving existing family homes.
More people living at the property would also lead to an increase in “noise and disturbance,” which would have a “detrimental” impact on already people living nearby.
It sits outside a metropolitan, district or local centre, as identified by Redbridge’s Local Plan, where HMOs are seen as more suitable.
The council also took issue with the proposed size of the communal areas, which it says falls short of the minimum standard.
The combined floorspace in the living room and kitchen would be, which is five metres shy of the legal requirement for an HMO housing between eight and ten people.
The applicant will be able to appeal the decision if they so wish.
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