Welcome to the Website
of the
NOTTINGHAM ACTION GROUP ON HOUSES IN MULTIPLE OCCUPATION
 

THE NAG
WHO ♦ WHAT ♦ WHY ♦ HOW?
 

[Arthur O’Shaughnessy, Poems of Arthur O’Shaughnessy]

We are residents living in neighbourhoods from across a large part of the City of Nottingham (Sherwood, The Arboretum, Hyson Green, Radford, The Park, Lenton, Dunkirk, The Meadows, Wollaton Park, Wollaton, Lenton Abbey), and also in Beeston and West Bridgford.

Although our neighbourhoods are as different from one another as we are, what they have in common are the problems caused by increasing concentrations of so-called 'Houses in Multiple Occupation' (HMOs) - shared houses with absentee landlords and short-term, highly transient tenants.

What we have in common is the feeling that as individual residents we run the risk of having little or no say in what primarily local and national government, our higher education establishments, developers, investors, and others are planning and doing, even though their decisions directly affect us and the future of the neighbourhoods in which we live. As individuals we feel we have little or no voice. However, we believe that coming together as a group gives us a voice.

In February 2004, we did get together and formed the Nottingham Action Group on HMOs – the NAG – not a nice name, but appropriate. What has been happening to our neighbourhoods is not nice for those who live in them, or for their futures, and we are ready to nag and keep on nagging to get things done.

Whilst we cannot change what has happened, perhaps we too can become not just the 'dreamers of dreams' but also the 'movers and shakers', and, by influencing what may be going to happen, so help shape the future of our neighbourhoods.

For the NAG that future needs to be neighbourhoods that are resilient, balanced and sustainable, and where people feel happy to put down roots and contribute to the future of the City of Nottingham as a whole. In other words:

‘... places where people want to live and work and learn, now and in the future. ...'

WHAT IS A HOUSE IN MULTIPLE OCCUPATION (HMO)?
 

An HMO is often also known as a 'shared house'. Put as simply as possible, an HMO is a building, or part of a building, occupied as a main residence by more than one household where a 'household' can be one person or several people provided that they are related to one another. So, for example, a home is probably an HMO if 

•three or more unrelated people live there as at least two separate households, and

•the people living there share the same amenities such as a kitchen and/or bathroom.

For more information about HMOs and about legislation relating to HMOs, we suggest you take a look at these websites:

http://www.hmolobby.org.uk

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/HMO 

Also, Nottingham City Council publish a regularly up-dated Register of Licensed HMOs, which can be downloaded from the appropriate link in this page: http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/HMO. Scroll to the 'Downloads' section and the register is the last item on the list.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT LICENSED HMOs
 

Complaints about licensed HMOs can be made directly by e-mailing:

hmo@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

REPORT A ROGUE LANDLORD

If you want advice or help relating to the condition and management of your privately rented property

Visit:
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/article/29046/Report-a-rogue-landlord-or-problem-with-your-private-rented-property
E-Mail: environmental.health@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Telephone: 0115 915-2020 (Option 4)
Write to: Environmental Health, Community Protection, Nottingham City Council, Loxley House,
Station Street, Nottingham NG2 3NG

FOR YOUR DIARY
 

NAG MEETINGS & EVENTS

NATIONAL, NOTTINGHAM & NEIGHBOURHOOD: MEETINGS, EXHIBITIONS, CONSULTATIONS & EVENTS

NEIGHBOURHOOD: PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCY ADVICE,
WARD MEETINGS, WARD WALKS & WARD EVENTS

Nottingham East Constituency: Contact information for Chris Leslie MP.
Nottingham South Constituency: Contact and constituency advice surgery information for Lilian Greenwood MP.

Dunkirk & Lenton Ward (D&L): Ward Walks: Nottingham City Council restructuring is affecting the programme of ward walks. To try and avoid posting inaccurate information, details of future Dunkirk & Lenton Ward walks will be posted only as and when they become available. Ward Councillors' Surgeries: Lenton Centre, 6.30 pm second Tuesday of every month; Dunkirk Community Centre, 7.00 pm fourth Friday of every month.

Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey Ward (WELA): Ward Walks: Nottingham City Council restructuring is affecting the programme of ward walks. To try and avoid posting inaccurate information, details of future Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey Ward walks will be posted only as and when they become available.

WELA Councillors' Monthly Update: WELA_Councillors_Update_February_2019.pdf

NEWS DESK
 

NATIONAL NEWS

NOTTINGHAM NEWS

NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS

 Changing Lenton: Lenton's Housing and a 'Vision for Lenton'

UNIVERSITY CORNER
 

NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

Community Statistics & Response Rates

At the meeting facilitated by the NAG on 26 January 2018, Nottingham Trent University presented its community statistics and response rates for the period from September 2017 to 26 January 2018. The university will be providing up-dated community statistics and response rates for each term of the academic year. 

A summary of Nottingham Trent University's community statistics for the academic year 2017 to 2018 is now available and can be downloaded here:

NTU_Community_Statistics_2017_to_2018.pdf

Nottingham Trent's 'Moving Into the Community' information portal can be accessed here:

 http://browzer.co.uk/u/ntu/preview/77

NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY

Community Newsletter

Community Newsletter Winter 2018

For information about University Park and Jubilee Campus Park events, and guides to gardens, trees, etc. visit:

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability/grounds

EDITOR'S NOTES
Fifteen Years On!
 

On 15 February 2004, a meeting of residents from neighbourhoods from across a wide area of the City of Nottingham, and beyond, agreed to the formal constitution of the Nottingham Action Group on HMOs. One of the driving forces behind its formation was the albeit low-level but persistent anti-social behaviour - predominantly noise, poor waste management (the ‘wheelie bin issue’), bad or non-existent property maintenance – that residents living in so-called 'studentified' neighbourhoods were being subjected to by HMO tenants and their landlords.

By working with each other; with the other groups in towns and cities across the country which together form the National HMO Lobby; with Nottingham City ward councillors and council officers; and with MPs locally and nationally, the NAG helped to affect significant changes to housing and planning legislation which gave, and continue to give, local authorities the better part of the toolkit they need to deal with the problems that unfortunately studentification brings with it. In doing this, the NAG has always highlighted the responsibilities that Nottingham's two universities have in not only acknowledging the problems inherent in studentification, but, and most importantly, in dealing with them.

So, whilst we welcome the joint response from the Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University reported by the Nottingham Post (Yet Again Student House Parties Inflict Noise on Arboretum Neighbourhoods) and the reassurance, given at the U-NAG meeting on 21 February 2019, that they are working together and with other partner agencies and residents, it is truly disappointing and frustrating to say the least that, 15 years on, residents are still experiencing the same destructive effects of that proportion of students whose behaviour is unacceptable and unnecessary. Also, we ask whether the amount of funding the universities are now both providing for additional CPO (over)time is really proportionate to the number of students in the city (around 60,000 we are told), and how well it addresses the obvious strain being placed on Community Protection and other Council services.

No doubt these comments play into the hands of those who label the NAG as 'anti-university' and 'anti-student': it never has been either of these. A good deal of what it has done and continues to do supports Nottingham's universities (and the City of Nottingham) by seeking to improve the quality and safety of the accommodation  students live in, whether that is houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) or, for that matter, any other student homes. However, students have a responsibility to behave in a manner that does not make the sort of impact on the lives of others that, yet again, the Nottingham Post has reported on over the past few days. In their turn, the universities also have a responsibility towards those residents whose lives and neighbourhoods are disrupted by the detrimental effects of studentification, and towards the city in which they are located.

This irresponsible behaviour brings students and the institutions they represent into disrepute. It puts an unacceptable strain on the diminishing resources available to the Police, Community Protection and other Nottingham City Council services. It stifles those neighbourhoods, like the ones in the Arboretum, Dunkirk & Lenton, Radford & Park, and Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey wards, which have been burdened with the unwanted and unwarranted label of 'student area', and, so often lost sight of in the emotional and emotive atmosphere created by anti-social behaviour, it continues to prevent them from moving forward to become what they rightfully should be: places where people want to live, and work and learn ... and not leave.

There is no simple answer to this problem. However, it is the NAG's continuing belief that answers can only be found and the problems properly addressed if the will is there to do so. It will only be there if neighbours in all affected neighbourhoods, whether they are within the City of Nottingham's boundaries or beyond, work together and support one another.

A good part of the NAG's history, especially as a group lobbying for recognition of the issues surrounding HMOs and for changes to national legislation and implementation of those changes locally, can be found in the pages of this website, in particular the 'Publications' page. It is by no means a full catalogue: there is much that was and continues to be done in the background and is rarely in a publishable format.  However, by looking back through the NAG's history, it is important, as well as gratifying, to acknowledge that progress, slow and painful though it is, has been made. Tto recognise that, despite the groundhog day nature of problems that keep recurring, fundamental changes have taken place, and to thank those people, too many to name, who have helped to make those changes possible and whose continuing involvement is essential if there is to be any hope of future progress.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS
 

Planning_Applications_Week_Ending_22_March_2019.pdf

Planning_Applications_Week_Ending_15_March_2019.pdf

Planning_Applications_Week_Ending_9_March_2019.pdf

 Planning_Applications_Week_Ending_1_March_2019.pdf

 You can view all planning applications by visiting the Planning Applications section of Nottingham City Council's website:

http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/article/23398/Planning-Applications

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & DISCLAIMER
 

The Nottingham Action Group on HMOs wishes to thank: Nottingham City Council for funding support; everyone whose contributions (photographs, ideas, articles, work) form part of this website; and Magneto Technologies Ltd (http://magnetoweb.com) for the expertise which has enabled us to set up and maintain this website.

Last, but by no means least, we also thank our neighbours in the National HMO Lobby for their continuing help and support.

The views and opinions expressed in contributions to this website do not necessarily reflect those of the Nottingham Action Group on HMOs, its committee, or its wider membership.

Whilst we endeavour to ensure that reports are accurate, from time to time mistakes may occur. If you feel this is the case, please contact the Nottingham Action Group on HMOs. Information on how to do so is available on the 'Contact Us' page of this website.