On 15 July, at Full Council in Burnley Town Hall, Cllr Liam Thomson moved a motion seconded by Cllr Mark Poulton titled “Putting Residents First: A Borough-wide Article 4 Direction and Inquiry into the Social and Economic Effects of High HMO Concentrations”.

It asked the council to do seven things. The headline one was to introduce Article 4 Directions across every ward in Burnley as a matter of urgency, removing the automatic right to convert a family home into a small house in multiple occupation without planning permission. The rest mattered just as much:

  • an urgent and comprehensive investigation into the true cost of HMOs to council services, environmental quality and community wellbeing
  • that the investigation be resident led, with formal consultation by direct letters to households on affected streets
  • acknowledgement of the link between high HMO concentrations and environmental decline, particularly fly-tipping and waste
  • additional licensing for HMOs occupied by three or four people, with future applications required to show no negative impact, adequate waste arrangements and no contribution to over-saturation
  • recognition that enforcement, environmental services and fly-tipping costs fall on the taxpayer rather than on those profiting
  • a commitment to stronger enforcement against poorly managed HMOs, using all available legal powers

It was never debated

The motion was not argued over, amended or voted on. The Mayor informed the meeting that under Council Procedure Rule 12, which covers motions with spending implications, the motion stood referred to the Executive without discussion.

That is the council’s own standing rule and it was applied correctly. The effect is still worth stating plainly. Forty-five elected members, representing every ward in the borough, did not get to say a single word about HMOs in Burnley that evening.

What the Executive decided

The Executive met on 12 August. On Article 4, it agreed with us.

It approved the making of a non-immediate Article 4 Direction covering the six wards that currently have no protection: Briercliffe, Cliviger with Worsthorne, Coalclough with Deerplay, Hapton with Park, Lanehead, and Whittlefield with Ightenhill. Together with the nine wards covered since October 2024, that would take Burnley to all fifteen.

We welcome that, and we will say so without qualification. It is what our motion called for.

There will now be six weeks of public consultation, a further report to the Executive in spring 2027 to decide whether to confirm the direction, and if confirmed it comes into force in September 2027.

Some people will call that a delay. In fairness, it is not. The Executive approved what is called a non-immediate direction, carrying twelve months’ notice, and its decision says so in those words. Twelve months’ notice is what removes the council’s liability to compensate developers for the rights being withdrawn. If Burnley moved faster it could end up paying for the privilege.

What is still missing

The Article 4 extension answers one of our seven asks. Six are still outstanding.

There is no investigation into what high HMO concentrations actually cost this borough. There are no letters going to residents on the affected streets. There is no additional licensing scheme for three and four person HMOs.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Our motion named Trinity as an area under pressure, and Trinity already has Article 4 protection. Extending planning control to six wards where the pressure is lowest is sensible prevention. It does nothing for the streets where residents are living with the problem today. Licensing and enforcement are the tools for those streets, and neither has moved.

On enforcement, something else happened at that same meeting on 12 August. The next item was a revised Civil Financial Penalty Policy for housing enforcement, the sort of policy that decides how hard the council can come down on a landlord who lets a property fall below standard. Three members of the Executive had declared interests, two of them as landlords of properties in the borough. Once they withdrew, the meeting no longer had enough members to take a decision, and the item was deferred.

Every one of those declarations was made properly and in line with the rules. No one did anything wrong, and we are not suggesting otherwise. But a council Executive that cannot reach a quorum on housing enforcement is a fact residents are entitled to know.

And then Burnley Council ceases to exist

Here is the part nobody at the Town Hall has addressed.

The decision on whether to confirm this direction falls in spring 2027. The direction comes into force in September 2027. Burnley Borough Council is due to be abolished on 1 April 2028, when it is replaced by a new unitary authority covering Burnley, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Pendle and Rossendale. That timetable depends on the Structural Changes Order, which has not been made yet. Elections to the shadow authority are in May 2027, before the confirming decision is even taken.

So the protection arrives roughly seven months before the council that created it disappears. Everything that makes an Article 4 Direction work after that, the monitoring, the enforcement, the planning judgements, the local plan that sits underneath it, passes to a new council covering five boroughs and more than half a million people, which did not make the direction and will be building its own planning policy from scratch.

The direction itself should carry over. What is not guaranteed is that anyone will have the time, the staff or the appetite to enforce it while a brand new authority is finding its feet.

That is what we will be pressing on. We want the Executive to put on record how the borough-wide direction, the enforcement powers and the monitoring commitment will be handed to the new authority, and we want it in writing before this council votes itself out of existence.

Have your say

The six week consultation on the Article 4 Direction will be publicised by the council shortly. There is also a separate consultation, open since 3 August, on selective licensing for private rented homes in Burnley Wood with Healey Wood, Leyland Road and Lyndhurst Road. It closes on Sunday 18 October 2026.

When those consultations open, use them. A consultation with a thin response is the easiest thing in the world for a council to set aside.

If HMOs are causing problems on your street, tell us and we will take it up.