Government withdraws plan to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from HMO licensing requirements

The Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have ditched plans to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from house in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing requirements, shortly before a judicial review challenge to the proposed regulations was to take place.

The Government first published draft regulations in March 2023 intended to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from HMO licensing requirements for a period of two years.

The proposed measures included removing the requirement for landlords who provide such accommodation to apply for a licence from the local authority.

The draft regulations prompted the Local Government Association (LGA) to warn in May 2023 that the measures would result in “a two-tier system that endangers regulation of houses”.

The LGA predicted that landlords would switch their properties away from the HMO regime to the less onerous Home Office one which may have been more profitable.

The same month, more than 130 organisations including the Chartered Institute of Housing, Crisis, Shelter, the Refugee Council and Amnesty International, signed a letter to the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and the Levelling-Up Secretary, Michael Gove, voicing their “extreme concerns” about the regulations.

The signatories claimed that the plans would see asylum-seekers housed in “unsafe accommodation with inadequate protections against fire and overcrowding”.

Eight asylum seekers living in hotel accommodation subsequently launched a legal challenge to the Government’s plans.

Doughty Street Chambers, a number of whose barristers acted for the claimants, suggested that Government disclosures had revealed significant opposition to the plans within DLUHC “including at, an early stage, from Secretary of State Michael Gove”.

In satellite litigation, the Court of Appeal ruled against the Government in a dispute over the redaction of junior civil servants’ names in judicial review cases.

At a hearing before Mrs Justice Lang this week (7 February), Government lawyers confirmed withdrawal of the plans to exempt asylum seeker accommodation from HMO licensing.

It was also confirmed that there was no intention to lay further regulations that would exempt asylum accommodation from HMO licensing, Doughty Street said.

Mrs Justice Lang ordered the Government to pay the claimants’ costs, including, for the latter part of the litigation, on an indemnity basis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our success maximising the use of existing sites and delivering alternative accommodation means it is no longer necessary to pursue the removal of licensing requirements for Houses in Multiple Occupation.

“We are making significant progress moving asylum seekers out of hotels, which cost UK taxpayers £8.2m a day. We have already returned the first 50 to their communities and we will exit more in the coming months.

“We continue to keep all policies under review as we work with local authorities to identify alternative accommodation options which are more suitable for local communities.”

The claimants were represented by Laura Dubinsky KC, Zia Nabi and Michael Spencer of Doughty Street Chambers, instructed by Duncan Lewis Solicitors. Further barristers from the set acted for the claimants at earlier stages in proceedings.

Harry Rodd