CIEH welcomes UK Government U-turn on exempting accommodation for asylum seekers from HMO licensing requirements

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has welcomed a last minute UK Government U-turn on exempting accommodation for asylum seekers from houses in multiple occupation (HMO) licensing requirements.

The U-turn came in the face of a legal challenge, backed by CIEH, to draft regulations that would have exempted asylum-seeker accommodation from these requirements.

Zena Lynch, a member of the CIEH Housing Advisory Panel who is also an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Risk Management at the University of Birmingham, provided witness evidence on behalf of CIEH for a judicial review of the draft regulations.

The case was listed for a final hearing in the High Court on 7 and 8 February 2024. The Court was informed on 6 February 2024 that the Government had decided to withdraw the draft regulations.

Louise Hosking, Executive Director of Environmental Health at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, said:

“We warmly welcome the Government’s U-turn on this issue. These draft regulations risked creating a two-tier system for enforcement of standards in HMOs. They could also have incentivised unscrupulous landlords to move into the supply of asylum-seeker accommodation.

We are immensely proud to have supported the legal challenge to these draft regulations on behalf of our members and to have played an important part in bringing about a successful outcome.

We were able to provide a unique perspective on the issue as the body representing the people responsible for HMO licensing enforcement.”