Birmingham Erdington MP Paulette Hamilton has described how entire streets and communities across north Birmingham continue to be 'taken over' by landlords filling properties with vulnerable tenants, including ex-prisoners, sex offenders, and the mentally unwell, with zero oversight. In some cases, landlords barred from opening a property as an official licensed HMO simply open it as 'supported exempt accommodation' instead, exploiting a massive loophole.
Over 11,000 Exempt Properties in Birmingham
More than 11,000 exempt properties are now open across the city, with thousands more operating as official HMOs. Hamilton said: 'Streets and areas in my constituency are being changed out of all recognition. We need action urgently.'
Birmingham has long been identified as a national hotspot for supported exempt housing, despite years of lobbying and promises of legislation. Exempt landlords receive a massive premium in enhanced housing benefits paid on behalf of each tenant, making the sector ripe for exploitation and worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year in Birmingham alone.
Confusing Mix of HMOs and Exempt Properties
Hamilton says entire streets and areas in Erdington, Kingstanding, Stockland Green, Castle Vale, and elsewhere across her constituency are now a confusing mix of exempt and HMO properties, with a reducing number of family homes squeezed between them. She has led successful neighbourhood campaigns to stop more HMOs opening, only to see the same properties open soon after as exempt properties. 'It's a crazy loophole that leaves communities feeling helpless,' she said.
MP Raises Concerns with Prime Minister
Last week, Hamilton raised her concerns directly with Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions. She told him: 'One of the concerns I hear most often from my constituents across Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale, and south Oscott is about the rapid growth of exempt accommodation. In my constituency and across Birmingham, properties refused HMO licences are opening anyway as exempt accommodation, with very little scrutiny. This undermines local communities and decision makers.'
She asked the PM to set out when new legislation will be brought forward, whether it would close loopholes, and whether it would be applied retrospectively. Starmer did not directly address her question but said: 'Everyone deserves a safe place to call home. The Housing Secretary has the power to introduce locally led licensing, and will consult on those regulations in the summer. Under our proposals, national standards for supported housing will be enforced by local authorities.'
100% Success Rate in Stopping HMOs, but Loophole Remains
Speaking afterwards, Hamilton said: 'We have had a 100% win that every single HMO seeking permission to open in Erdington, Kingstanding, Castle Vale, or south Oscott has been rejected. As long as we know about it we oppose it and have had a 100% success rate in stopping them. The problem is that the landlords instead turn to the loophole of exempt accommodation.'
Hamilton said she had examples of this happening. 'We need the DWP to tighten the rules around exempt. There needs to be more scrutiny when they are giving out such vast sums of money. These properties need to be compliant and ensure standards of accommodation are high, just as they would if it was a HMO. We need to have a fighting chance of stopping these accommodations opening.'
Impact on Communities
An area with a high number of exempt properties quickly becomes somewhere families don't want to stay, with knock-on impacts of anti-social behaviour, including drug dealing and violence. 'People living in exempt properties come onto the high streets through no fault of their own, they have nowhere to go during the day because there is nowhere for them, we have no real community centres left, they then gravitate to the local high streets and that leads to anti-social behaviour, residents complain, and the rest is history.'
Hamilton called for a full housing plan for Birmingham to assess the levels of these properties and how to reject more of them, but said powers are needed to close loopholes. She also wants retrospective application so that existing exempt properties can be reassessed against new standards.
Residents' Concerns
Residents in one street had approached her recently about the impact of a former three-bed family house turned into a six-bed exempt property. 'They have had drugs in there, ex prisoners with rape convictions, they are concerned because they have children and grandchildren in their area and they want a say, but currently have no say.'
Exempt providers and agents are also luring tenants from across the country to fill vacant rooms. Hamilton said her inquiries about whether Birmingham was a 'soft touch' for providers revealed that applications for exempt housing benefits are processed more quickly here than elsewhere. The council is known to deal with applications in a short period while other councils take 'months' to assess and make payments. As a result, landlords are more likely to look to Birmingham to open more properties.
'You can be a landlord and buy a property and apply to the council with your six tenants dragged out of a prison for enhanced housing benefits and you will start receiving payments within a couple of weeks. That is not right. There is also no incentive for landlords to keep the properties as residential homes for rent to a family because you can earn so much more money from renting out individual rooms as exempt units.'
Hamilton concluded: 'We know some people need these properties and are vulnerable. We must though ensure the accommodation is fit for purpose and through the planning system we properly check on how they are supporting people.'
