Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

HMO ban has damaged St Andrews, claims economist

Bridge Street has one of the highest proportions of HMOs in St Andrews.
Bridge Street has one of the highest proportions of HMOs in St Andrews.

A ban on HMOs in its town centre has damaged St Andrews and should have been dealt with sooner, according to a university economist.

Dr Ross Brown accused Fife Council of sticking its head in the sand over the issue of houses of multiple occupation which it tried to tackle by imposing a moratorium six years ago.

According to a report seen by The Courier the policy has put further pressure on house prices and failed to control the growth in number of HMOs, pushing student tenants out into residential areas.

Since the moratorium was applied, prohibiting planning permission for new HMOs in the conservation area, the number of HMOs outside University of St Andrews ownership has risen by 22% to almost 650.

Estate agents reported a rise in demand from buy-to-let landlords for property in outlying residential areas of the town not covered by the moratorium.

Dr Brown, of the university’s school of management, said: “I think the council has taken the old ostrich strategy of putting its head in the sand, hoping it will work out, but it has been quite damaging on the town.

“It has been far too slow in addressing the issue. It said it would look at the impact (of the moratorium) after two years but five years down the line they have only just commissioned this study this year.

“The trends were already showing after two years.”

He branded the partial moratorium “extremely ill-conceived” and said the potential for unintended consequences were flagged up at the outset.

Dr Brown, who recently published his own assessment of the town’s HMO situation, has recommended a town-wide moratorium, rejecting a suggestion by some that it be flipped to permit new HMOs in the town centre only.

Recommendations in the council’s report, conducted independently by consultant North Star, have been redacted in the version seen by The Courier. The report was completed in April but it will be January before it is presented to councillors.

Dr Brown said: “Redacting the conclusions is a bit sad and quite Machiavellian. This is the crux of the matter.

“However, I can’t see how they can have come to any other conclusion than one similar to my own, which is that the situation with HMOs has got out of hand and needs to be thought through and properly regulated.”

The university has recently sanctioned investment of £70 million to provide 900 new places in halls of residence and is developing a 64-bed affordable housing scheme for staff and postgraduate students.

In 2014 Fife Council said there was a lack of empirical evidence on the affected the moratorium and continued it until 2016.

Housing manager Helen Wilkie said: “In January we’ll be holding a workshop with councillors to look at the consultants’ findings and explore options for the future.

“This was the earliest opportunity to hold this event allowing time for further discussions and the planning programme.

“We hope to report to committee with proposals as early as February.”