Words by John Lambert
Residents aren’t imagining this? They’re living it. Every single day.
Bins overflowing like a Victorian slum, fly-tipping, rats, noise at all hours, parking that’s basically impossible and once decent family streets turning into transient chaos.
People can see it with their own eyes. They can smell it.
What makes this whole thing reek is the rank hypocrisy from some of the very councillors who are supposed to be sorting it out.
They’ll moan in WhatsApp groups, post outraged tweets, nod sagely in meetings about “the HMO problem” and how something must be done, all while quietly owning multiple HMO properties themselves and cashing the cheques. Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways.
If they are benefiting from a system that is damaging their own constituents’ quality of life, they should spare residents the performative hand-wringing.
That is not leadership. It is posturing.
No wonder trust in local politicians is in the gutter. People are sick to death of this two-faced nonsense. One message for the cameras, another reality behind closed doors. Residents want straight talking. They want consistency.
Above all, they want councillors who aren’t feathering their own nests while pretending to care about the mess.
If we really want to sort out the HMO mess, the overcrowding, the anti-social behaviour, the way it’s dragging down whole neighbourhoods, then councillors need to step up and enforce strict licensing, inspect every property thoroughly and close down any that don’t meet basic standards.
Erdington and every other town blighted by this deserves proper representation, not managed outrage and political hypocrisy.
Follow Reform UK Erdington Branch on X/Twitter at www.x.com/ReformErdington
Noticed a shift in this guy’s articles – from foaming at the mouth drivel to AI generated slop. Doesn’t seem to have a clue how to actually sort the problems and doesn’t know the difference between exempt accommodation and HMOs Clearly more needs to be done on both but I wouldn’t trust Reform any more than Labour, plenty of their candidates and members will be profiting too.
I live next to one of these properties in Erdington and there are many more than 10 similar properties on my street. BCC own HMO planning policy uses a 10% threshold within 100 metres, yet in areas like mine we’re clearly dealing with far higher concentrations of shared and exempt-style accommodation.
The property next to me is operated by a company in London, but we’ve no idea who is actually responsible for it and when things kick off at 2am, there is no contact and nobody accountable. It has now been raided by police twice this year alone and we’ve now made what must be 12 calls to West Midlands Police. We are also given no notice of building works. At present, scaffolding has been placed against the rear of our house without our consent and are on a merry-go round to get it removed.
All the residents around me certainly aren’t confused about the difference between exempt accommodation and HMOs and we’re all fed up with the consequences of living alongside both, especially when nobody is accountable. If a property is causing chaos, someone must answer for it. Every HMO should have strict licensing, regular inspections, firm enforcement, prosecutions where needed and a clearly named responsible owner.