Stockport Council now has tighter controls over HMOs in the borough.

Davenport, Edgeley and Reddish all have high concentrations of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs), the latest town hall meeting was told. In order to stop this becoming more of an issue, council cabinet members voted to approve an Article 4 direction.

An Article 4 direction requires all HMOs to be approved by the local authority.

Only HMOs with more than six bedrooms required planning permission previously. The idea behind this move is to give the council greater control over the number and quality of HMOs coming into the borough.

HMOs are houses where multiple people who are unrelated live together and share kitchen and bathroom facilities. They are a more affordable type of accommodation usually taken up by young professionals or students.

HMOs are controversial because a high concentration of people in one home can spark waste, parking and noise problems in residential areas.

Because no planning permission is required for smaller HMOs, the council currently has limited information on the number of HMOs in their own borough. This is because not all HMO landlords seek a HMO licence with the local authority.

Speaking at the latest cabinet meeting, housing boss Cllr Jake Austin said: "At this moment in time we don't necessarily have all the information on all the HMOs that exist in the borough. On the information we do have we know there are significant concentrations of HMOs within areas such as Davenport, Edgeley and Reddish.

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"This seeks immediate Article 4 direction across the borough. Our thinking behind that is that if we only restrict it to certain areas of the borough, then other areas that don't currently have a high concentration of HMOs would become a target for them.

"This will not stop all HMOs, but it ensures it goes through the planning process in a proper way."

He went on to say that HMOs play an important part of the housing stock in the borough, but believed this would allow the council to control the quality of HMOs on offer.

Stockport Council's cabinet unanimously agreed to bring in the immediate Article 4 direction at their meeting on September 15 in Fred Perry House.