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

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THE NAG
WHO ♦ WHAT ♦ WHY ♦ HOW?
 


“We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams, ...
... Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.”

[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

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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

February 2019 Unipol-NAG (U-NAG) Open Meeting: 'Current Trends & Future Developments in the Student Housing Market'

Notes of this meeting, held on Thursday 21 February 2019, are now available to read and to download when you open this page.

January 2018 NAG Open Meeting: Notes of Meeting Now Available

Notes of this meeting, held on Friday, 26 January 2018, are available to read and to download when you open this page.


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

Thursday 29 August 2019: Bat Walk Around Jubilee Campus

Walk of between an hour and an hour-and-a-half through Jubilee Campus. Attendees require to be steady on their feet. 8.15 pm meet at the Aspire Cafe. Fee 33.00 per person, booking required.

Friday 30 August 2019: Bat Walk Around University Park

8.00 pm onwards, sunset walk for around one to one-and-a-half hours. Attendees must be ready on their feet. Fee £4.00 per person. Booking required.


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.
Lenton & Wollaton East Ward: Contact details for ward councillors, location and times of ward surgeries, ward walks,  neighbourhood events ... 

Lenton & Wollaton East Ward News Update July 2019


NEWS DESK
 


NATIONAL NEWS

University Degree Inflation Continues to Spiral

On 11 July 2019 the BBC News Family and education Correspondent, Sean Coughlan, reported on a warning by the Office of Students that almost three-quarters of increases in top grades are 'unexplained', echoing worries that grade inflation threatens to devalue university education.

Kensington London: Couple Lose Court Battle Over Noise Disturbance

on Tuesday 2 July 2019 Tristan Kirk, Courts Correspondent of the Evening Standard, reported on the outcome of a legal battle between neighbours. Last year a county court judge awarding £107,397 in damages ruled that the defendants should have fitted carpeting and soundproofing when they installed a wooden floor in their apartment in 2010.

'Save the Student' Website Survey Results: No Water & Rodents Among Student Housing Gripes

Kevin Peachey (Personal Finance Reporter, BBC News) on Wednesday 13 March 2019 reported on concerns raised by students in a recent survey by 'Save the Student': Included in the list of ten biggest concerns are the state of accommodation and noisy housemates.

 

NOTTINGHAM NEWS

Unite Release Plans to Build New 620 Bed Student Accommodation on Derby Road

Matthew Bunn, writing in the Nottingham Post on Monday 12 August 2019 reported on plans by the student accommodation provider Unite to build a new 620-bed a development for students on land on Derby Road (Jaguar-Toyota car showrooms) adjacent to its present 484-bed student accommodation on Radmarsh Road.

York House Scheme Revision Adds Extra Student Rooms

Writing in the Nottingham Post (Friday 2 August 2019) Jamie Barlow reported that developers of the site of the former York House office block have revised the scheme to add another 50 student bed spaces to the existing scheme, making a total of nearly 500.

Bolting the Stable Door: Councillors Aim to Stop Beeston Tide of HMOs

Writing in the Nottingham Post on Friday 5 July 2019, Kit Sandeman reported that Broxtowe Borough Council is to take action to control the number of student houses in Beeston ... and prevent it from turning into another Lenton.

 

NEIGHBOURHOOD NEWS

Grove Hotel: Planning Inspector Dismisses Appeal

A planning application seeking permission to convert the upper floors of the Grove Hotel, Lenton, and to add a substantial extension in order to accommodate student housing was refused by Nottingham City Council. The subsequent appeal to the Planning Inspectorate has now been dismissed.

"That Guy Looked Like He Was Robbing the Place"

On Friday 15 March 2019, Alex Mace and Dan Russell (Deputy Digital Editor) reported in the Nottingham Post that a student dressed as a policewoman confronted a thief in Gill Street South student accommodation, but later items from the flat were found to have been stolen.

Yet Again Student House Parties Inflict Noise on Arboretum Neighbourhoods

The Nottingham Post (Joseph Locker Sunday 24 February 2019 and Phoebe Ram Monday 25 February 2019) report on the continuing and vexatious issue of student anti-social behaviour, in this instance noisy house parties in Nottingham's Arboretum neighbourhoods during the week-end resulting in CPOs handing out warnings and fixed penalty notices to a number of student households.


UNIVERSITY CORNER
 

NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

Community Statistics & Response Rates

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 Spring 2019

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 NOTEBOOK
Requiem for a Glacier
 

Whether it’s pressing home matters (In my case, running maintenance and repairs on a home and garden approaching their 100th birthday.); or the likely impact of the proposal by Unite to bring another 600+ students into a neighbourhood already dominated by students (Unite Release Plans to Build New 620 Bed Student Accommodation on Derby Road) and what, if anything, can be done about it; or the seemingly never-ending political chaos in this (dis) United Kingdom; or the potential for more than enough confrontations in the wider world to add to that chaos, it's far too easy to dismiss climate change as another example of ‘false news’, or for it to be something so remote and so complex that it slips under the radar.

Personally, I don’t dismiss the impact the human species is having on this planet as false news, but, unless as happened earlier today when I came across a  BBC news story by Toby Luckhurst (Sunday 18 August 2019), I tend to let the whole problem slip into the same mental compartment where I file all those matters which are either truly insoluble or which I just feel helpless to even begin to deal with.

The story is titled ‘Iceland’s Okjukull glacier commemorated with plaque’ and it explains that after some 700 years, the Okjukull Glacier in Iceland has been reduced to a small patch of ice on top of a volcano. It is no longer thick enough to move and was officially declared dead in 2014. The commemorative plaque reads:

 

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as glacier.
"In the next 200 years all our main glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done.
Only you know if we did it.”

 

It is dated August 2019, and gives the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air as 415 ppm.

There is nothing I want to add to this other than to say that this link will take you to Toby Luckhurst's article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49345912

Please read it.


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.

©2019 The Nottingham Action Group

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