Councillors approve extra planning checks for shared houses

This follows a public consultation which showed strong support for the council bringing in an Article 4 Direction.

Members of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s Executive Committee met last night (22 April) to consider a report on the public consultation held earlier this year (19 February to 27 March 2026) and the evidence for a proposed Article 4 Direction.

Executive Members unanimously agreed to proceed with introducing the Article 4 Direction in line with the strong consultation response.

An Article 4 Direction is a planning rule that removes the automatic right to change a family home into a small shared house, known as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), within a set area. This means that anyone wanting to create a new small HMO in the area covered will need to apply for planning permission from 1 May 2026 onwards. Existing lawful HMOs are not be affected.

The proposal was published earlier this year, following an Executive Committee decision in January to consult on a draft Article 4 Direction for a defined area in and around Hinckley town centre. This was raised in response to concerns from residents, councillors and local communities about the growing concentration of shared houses in some areas, which can bring issues such as parking pressure, waste problems, noise and disturbance, and pressure on local services.

National planning rules require Article 4 Directions to be evidence‑led and focused on specific areas, which is why the proposal does not apply borough‑wide.

At the same meeting, Executive Members unanimously agreed that any future decisions on Article 4 Directions elsewhere in the borough will be made by the Leader of the Council and the Director of Place, after looking at the evidence, consulting as needed and speaking with the relevant ward councillors. This is to enable the Council to react swiftly.

A total of 656 consultation responses were received from residents, landlords, letting agents, businesses, councillors, charities and other stakeholders. The consultation response was overwhelmingly in favour of introducing an Article 4 Direction, with around two thirds of those who answered the question supporting the proposal, around a quarter opposing it, and the remainder unsure.

Those who supported the Article 4 Direction asked that the council sought to manage where shared houses are concentrated and to have more say over issues such as parking, rubbish and noise. Those who opposed it raised concerns about the supply of lower‑cost shared housing and whether well‑run shared houses should be subject to additional planning controls.

Some consultation responses also referred to the use of some HMOs to accommodate asylum seekers in the borough. The report was clear the Borough Council does not operate the asylum accommodation programme, stating the Article 4 Direction is limited to introducing planning controls for new small HMOs in a defined area. It notes that HMOs are not solely used for asylum accommodation, adding they are an essential part of the local housing mix, providing affordable, practical homes for residents who would otherwise struggle to secure accommodation and play an important role in keeping the local housing market working.

Cllr Stuart Bray, Leader of Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, said: “Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their views in the consultation and particularly to the 50 or so members of the public who showed their support by coming along to the meeting last night – it really does help us get this right. A lot of people have raised concerns about asylum accommodation in the borough. It’s important to note that the government and not the Borough Council operates the asylum dispersal programme and the Home Office’s contractor Serco is procuring private accommodation nationwide.

“The Article 4 Direction is about making sure new HMOs in the area are properly planned and managed and residents are properly consulted in an open and transparent way.

“I’ll be working closely with officers and local ward members to keep a close eye on this borough-wide, and if we see similar pressures building up elsewhere, we now have a process in place to quickly extend the area covered.”