Houses in Multiple Occupation Supplementary Planning Document

HMOs provide a form of low-cost housing, particularly for younger people and people on low incomes. They also provide flexible accommodation for people with short-term housing requirements. This includes people in-between properties, people employed on short-term contracts and people who are saving to purchase a home. They also provide housing for people that simply prefer to live with large numbers of other people.

HMOs in Salford are generally well managed and provide decent homes, experience has shown that an over concentration of HMOs can have an unacceptable impact on the positive residential character of areas due to issues such as:

• Anti-social behaviour, noise and nuisance
• Imbalanced and unsustainable communities, with higher levels of transience and less sustainable local services
• Pressures upon parking provision
• Increased levels of crime in the local area
• Growth in the private rented sector at the expense of owner-occupation

Draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) – consultation

A draft SPD relating to HMOs has been prepared. The draft SPD and supporting documents can be downloaded below.

The purpose of the SPD is to better manage the provision of new HMOs throughout Salford by providing a threshold to guide the location of them. It has been prepared to supplement policies in the Salford: Local Plan: Development Management Policies and Designations (SLP:DMP), including policy H10.

Consultation on the draft SPD took place between 23 February 2024 and 5 April 2024.

What happens next

We are considering all comments received as part of preparing a final version of the SPD. It is likely that an updated SPD will be adopted as Council policy in June 2024. Once adopted it will be a material consideration in the determination of relevant planning applications.

This page was last updated on 19 April 2024