Getting planning permission for an HMO has become harder in many parts of the country. New analysis suggests councils across England are turning down considerably more HMO applications than they used to. As your local estate agent, here is what we know so far.
Property company 1st Avenue analysed data from 144 English councils and found HMO planning refusals have roughly doubled in five years, rising from 590 to 1,203. Approval rates held steady at around 68% between 2021 and 2023, but have since fallen, sitting at 63% so far in 2026.
One reason behind the rise in refusals is the use of Article 4 directions, which remove the permitted development rights that would otherwise let a landlord convert a family home into a small HMO of three to six sharers without full planning permission. There is no central register of these directions, but the National Residential Landlords Association estimates that 75 to 80 English local authorities have introduced them, and coverage differs from council to council. Barnet, which covers our Finchley patch, has had a borough-wide direction in force since 29 May 2016, so planning permission is required there for a small HMO conversion. It is not retrospective, so HMOs that already existed before that date are unaffected.
1st Avenue’s Paul Endacott says the tightening is not simply landlords against councils, it is about where people end up living when regulated, legal options become harder to secure. He notes that stricter licensing is right when it targets genuinely poor quality or overcrowded HMOs, but warns that blanket restrictions risk filtering out well managed shared housing along with the bad.
At Drivers & Norris, we keep track of planning and licensing changes across the areas we cover, so our advice to landlords reflects the rules that actually apply to their property rather than a national headline. If you own or are considering an HMO, get in touch with the team to talk it through.
Source: Letting Agent Today
— Drivers & Norris