Inside UK city 'being sent back to Victorian era' as greedy landlords cash in

A UK city is being transported back to the Victorian era, it has been claimed, as residents say houses of mixed occupation (HMOs) have destroyed their community. Former soldier Derek Culling, 76, who moved into his house in Brighton Road in Derby in 1990, said: "They're swamping areas," he added, "and they're just knocking the heart out of a road." The veteran, who used to party in the garden with his neighbours, added: "I knew everybody along this street then."

But now, the area feels "fractured", and Mr Culling feels like he is living "in a barrel" after the properties on either side of his home were converted into HMOs, which resulted in "horrendous" noise. He said: "We don't know who's next door. They haven't caused any problems, don't get me wrong. But we don't know, because they're in and out, in and out all the time.

"We just let them get on and we do our thing."

The long-term resident added: "Gradually, it started to creep up from the top end [of the street] and then it came to me like a bolt of lightning."

The ex-Army man who is originally from the Old Kent Road area of London, added: "That's the way it's going to go.

"All the way along this street.

"We don't know who's next door - it's chopping and changing."

People move in and out every six months, the long-term resident said.

Mr Culling added: "We spoke to the council many times, and they just didn't seem to be responsive.

"We'll just have to soldier on."

Recalling times gone by, he said: "We used to be in and out of the house, and didn't lock the doors.

"But, as time goes on, people pass away, and, as they die, these companies jump on the bandwagon."

As the change gradually went on, Mr Culling says he told the city council that it was "swamping the area" with HMOs, and "it's not just one or two".

In October, Derby City Council joined many other local authorities in the UK, such as Blackburn, Hull, Coventry and London boroughs, in approving plans to tighten rules on HMOs amid concerns about their "excessive" presence in the region.

The new Article Four regulations mean landlords need planning permission to convert a small home for up to six unrelated tenants.

Larger HMOs already needed planning permission.

Shirley Parsons, 77, said: "I can't see it getting better," she said. "It's going to get worse.

"I've said to people: 'I'm glad I'm my age and not younger, because you don't know how it's going to go.'

"It's sad, really."

A lot of people rent locally, the former measurement engineer at Rolls Royce said, and tend not to stay in the same property for very long.

She told the Express: "Believe it or not, I've been here since I was two.

"I can honestly say nobody has been here as long as me.

"This was a corporation house, and my dad bought it when Maggie Thatcher was in."

The "good old days" were "more communal", the pensioner remembered, and "everybody used to get together if there was a problem".

Ms Parsons added: "If somebody died we'd all go around doing collections.

"It's nice to know your neighbours.

"I'm of the old group of people that like to get to know your neighbours."

She said: "The community was lovely, you know.

"You knew your neighbours. You knew everybody, really, around here.

"Whereas, you don't know a lot of the people now, that's around you."

As well as the more fluid lifestyle of HMO occupants, permanent residents also act differently, Ms Parsons noted, describing how they "go out to work, come home and that's it".

When asked if she could change things back, she said: "Oh, God yeah."

During a walk around Alvaston, the leader of Reform Derby on the council, Councillor Tim Prosser, said: "The problem we have is that it breaks up the community.

"We have a transient population."

As a result, there are more bins and rubbish on the streets, the councillor added.

"It degrades, because the people are not connected with the area."

"There's too many people crammed into a space," Cllr Prosser said.

"It's like going back to Victorian times.

"Different people in one house, it creates fraction, noise and parking problems."

Rents have doubled in Derby in five years, the politician claimed, with landlords purportedly able to rake in about £2,000 a month from a four-bed mixed house.

Daniel Otter, 48, lives in Normanton but is often at Shirley's house helping her out.

"The family community and spirit has completely gone," he said.

"I was one of those kids that played in the streets until dusk, and every neighbour was a parent.

"Everyone knew who everyone's kids were."

He added: "I was the kid that knocked on [doors] asking for sugar and things when you needed help.

"I guess there weren't the shops as well, back then.

"Now there's none of that.

"People don't seem to care.

"Like now we've got bins left in the street and rubbish dumped."

Mr Otter, who slept rough on the street for up to four months after losing his house and partner, said there seems to be " a lack of respect" from some for where they live.

"I think that's what people struggle with," he added.

The mechanic also told the Express that the area feels less safe, referring to an incident in August last year, after which a man was charged with six offences after reports of an individual being seen in Chambers Street with a weapon.

Police recovered an imitation firearm after he had purportedly attempted to rob two men.

"There's always things going on," he said.

"I doubt you'd go out in the evening, if at all."

Joan Borrington, 56, who works as a chef at a Premier Inn, has lived for 25 years in the adjoining Allestree Street.

She said: "The parking is absolutely atrocious, and the mess.

"Over the past two years, hundreds of [HMOs] have gone up around here.

"It's a lot more segregated than it used to be."

Occupants keep themselves to themselves, she added, also claiming that some are drug users.

"It just depends what people they have in the HMO," Ms Borrington said.

"Some are lovely, no noise.

"Another one has loud music on all day.

"They really don't care."

She recalled seeing five or six young men in a house having a party and drinking.

"Everybody to their own, the resident said.

"But when it's in the middle of the street, and you can't get past them, if you're out and about.

"Sometimes, when I got to work in the morning, they're still out there at 5am in the morning.

"It's probably just a handful of disrespectful young people doing their thing."

Ms Borrington added that the area used to be "very, very community orientated".

She said: "Eight houses in our road were always out in the garden partying together, playing with the kids.

"You don't seem to get any of that anymore."

A passing postman who delivers across Derby said HMOs have "definitely increased".

Another resident of Brighton Road, Joy, 64, a cleaner born and bred Derby who did not wish to provide her surname, said people in the past "all had respect for each other".

She added: "A lot of people nowadays don't have that respect."

The local has to deal with "loud music" and talking in the street during the early hours of the morning and late at night.

Given the amount of vehicles parked in the road, she also worries about whether emergency vehicles can be driven past.

Labour Councillor Shiraz Khan, Derby City Council Cabinet Member for Housing, Strategic Planning and Regulatory Services, said: "In Derby we need housing, but not HMOs in every street.

"We know that the increasing number of HMOs in certain parts of our city can lead to issues such as anti-social behaviour, crime and increased pressures on parking.

"This is not an issue we have ignored.

"Previously, as Chair of Planning and Control Committee, I worked hard to introduce Article

4 Direction, and since becoming Cabinet Member I have ensured its implementation, giving

us more control over the quantity and location of HMOs.

"Whilst Article Four alone will not stop HMOs, I have instructed all our departments to work

together in a multi-agency approach to ensure we don't oversaturate our communities and

leave family homes for families.

"We can require new developments to provide adequate parking and waste facilities.

"This is about managing growth, not letting it manage us."