Minister will not pass buck on bolstering student housing laws

By David Young, PA

A Stormont minister has indicated she would look favourably on any request from Belfast City Council to bolster laws around multiple occupancy student homes.

Communities minister Caral Ni Chuilin said she would not “pass the buck” if asked to toughen up licensing laws on House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

Her comments come amid ongoing concern over house parties in breach of coronavirus regulations in the Holylands student area of Belfast.

While Covid-19 has brought added focus on the area this year, there has been long term concern about anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood and the number of HMOs licensed.

Ms Ni Chuilin was asked several questions about the issue at the Assembly on Monday.

She highlighted that the responsibility for HMO licensing was recently handed to local councils.

The minister said Belfast City Council led on the issue on behalf of all 11 council areas in Northern Ireland.

She said, if the council wanted extra powers, it needed to inform her department, noting that she was not aware of any such request being lodged.

“If Belfast City Council officials feel that the powers that they have aren’t strong enough then they need to feed that back to us,” she said.

“If it does come back from Belfast City Council, who are operating this on behalf of all councils, that there’s a need for additional powers and additional enforcement, I’m happy to look at that.”

The minister said there was a responsibility on landlords to ensure their tenants were behaving appropriately.

Referring to the experience of some long-term residents in the area, she said: “No one should be living in their own homes in fear or unable to get a night’s sleep, their kids are going to school absolutely exhausted, and their quality of life is completely diminished and that’s unacceptable.

“We seem to be discussing this problem every year and we do need to fix it.”

The minister added: “Let me be clear again, if there are requests (from council) then we’ll certainly look at them, absolutely look at them.

“I am not going to pass the buck at all.”