Hi

I'd like to share this post with you from my HMO campaign colleague Jim Hegharty on Facebook.

The original post can be found here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18KzFuoakP/

But I have also recreated the post below for those that do not have access to Facebook it explains very clearly whats happening in Potters Bar under the current administration...

Good afternoon everyone,

I am posting another HMO related clip from the Hertsmere Borough Council meeting on 25 March 2026. This is in regards to immediate Article Four.

I have included the full question asked by Councillor Clarkson regarding Article Four as well as the complete reply from the Deputy Leader Shenton below.

Councillor Clarkson:
Councillor Shenton, isn’t there another wasted opportunity by this administration dragging it’s feet on HMOs engulfing Potters Bar and now Borehamwood.  Four thousand residents, Councillor Shenton, signed a petition calling for immediate action. The nonsense that we can’t introduce an immediate Article Four, it doesnt add up. Developers may ask for compensation but they don’t discuss it beforehand.  There’s no, they might be planning something but they only say it is a HMO afterwards. It doesn’t add up and residents are absolutely furious. Police turned up three times to an address on Southgate Road this week. Talk about empty homes, people in Potters Bar are petrified as soon as a house comes on the market. Because they’re worried it’s gonna be turned into a HMO. So I ask Councillor Shenton, Mr Mayor, isn’t it time the administration gets tough, gets courageous on this issue. An HMO issue which thousands concerned about in Potters Bar?  

Councillor Shenton’s response:
“On the question of HMOs in Potters Bar, we take advise from officers and legal advise on whether it was appropriate to have an immediate HMO (Article Four) or to have a twelve month period that allows people who might have or have HMOs to challenge it. The advise is clear that if you impose an HMO straight away then anybody, whether or not they have any intention of making an HMO out of a house can claim that they did and would claim compensation from the borough. Our very very strong advise was the cost of covering an immediate ban on HMOs is prohibitive and the appropriate way is to have the Article Four over 12 months. This is the sensible, this is the financially prudent course of action.”

The leaders of the government have repeated this falsehood as to why we can't implement an immediate Article Four. As if any person gets to walk up to the council offices and ask for a free check.

It's quite sad that in the course of four sentences there is so much disinformation.

Article Four is not a ban on HMOs. Article Four removes many permitted development rights and requires developers or homeowners to submit planning applications for works that would normally be exempt. This simply means that if they are looking to convert a home into a HMO they have to apply for planning permission. The reason that Potters Bar has been the target of HMO proliferation is because there are no protections. Surrounding boroughs such as Enfield and Barnet have Article Four directions in place.  The community of Potters Bar has no place to push back and protect the area from what has become an aggressive exploitation of planning and development.

If the plan of action is to do a non-immediate Article Four and give twelve months notice before implementing Article Four, then why hasn’t notice been served? The evidence for the Article Four can be gathered and submitted while the twelve month clock is ticking, the bespoke Article Four hire that the council took six months to find has said as much. Let’s not forget that the planning and housing departments are too busy dealing with all the ‘family home’ planning applications from known HMO developers. We are nine months past Jeremy Newmark declaring war on HMOs and it appears that they don’t even understand the process let alone know what an adequate solution looks like. The fact is that they say they care, but they don’t.

Not just anyone can claim compensation from the borough, whether or not they actually had any intention of making a HMO out of a house. The rules on who can claim compensation against an immediate Article Four are clear. Compensation is only payable if a planning application is refused or granted with conditions. Compensation is limited to abortive expenditures and loss or damage directly attributable to the withdrawal.

The council adopting an immediate Article Four and then addressing planning applications on a case by case basis for the following twelve months would have allowed them to avoid compensation claims and know the true scope and scale of the current issue in Potters Bar. An immediate Article Four also marks time for anyone still looking to buy a property in Potters Bar and convert it to a HMO. If they buy a property after an immediate Article Four is put in place, then they have bought knowing that is already in place, thus limiting their ability to make a claim. But we haven’t even had the twelve month notice for the non-immediate Article Four. Why? Because those in charge lack the ability to plan and take action.

Currently we have developers submitting six planning applications for one property, claiming it’s going to be a family home in a couple planning applications, two family homes in another, and then conversion to a HMO in others. Who do we get to claim compensation from for burdening the Hertsmere Planning department for excessive applications? That’s the community’s resources these grifters are expending when they know exactly what they are looking to convert it to.  

On the planning portal, there aren’t many applications for change of use from C3 to C4. Sadly, this is because the planning department allows blatant planning by deception. They will put on their blinders and allow HMO developers to submit fraudulent applications claiming they want to put an extension on a family home. Those drawings will never be built. The planning enforcement will take no action, and then six months later that property will end up on the HMO register. The council’s inaction on this is detestable. If you want to see who the current leaders side with, see for whom they will bend over backward to accommodate. These developers are not being upfront and applying for this work to be done as a HMO because they don’t want to face appropriate scrutiny for what they are doing, and the council allows them to continue this deception.

Firstly, Council, whoever is giving you planning and legal advice is beyond incompetent. It’s either that or you came to the wrong conclusions from what they told you. Either way, sort that out. Potters Bar shouldn’t have to suffer because clowns are at the controls.

If you are so afraid of immediate Article Four, where is the non-immediate Article Four? The clock should be running on it. You are nine months behind. We could be way further ahead of this.

Poor developers, what about their losses?
Do you mean the people who have turned Potters Bar into a community that the next generation of families no longer consider a good place to settle down? The ones who have bought up well over 100 homes in the last four years that were in more affordable areas, like Oakmere and Ashwood? Focusing in on areas that the government classed as ‘areas of deprivation’? 

Areas that could use help and investment, not exploitation and overdevelopment.
Areas that could use some help protecting against people who are seeing how many rooms they can legally fit into a converted family home and how much money they can get councils to pay them to house people on their housing list. Areas like Enfield and Barnet who have Article Four direction in place for their borough and have been placing people in Potters Bar.

That’s not meeting community needs, that is making Potters Bar a dumping ground for people who need help themselves. People who shouldn’t be relocated to some other borough because it’s financially advantageous to parasites.

Who cares though? As long as that benefits money goes straight to the landlord’s bank account.

Many of these homes in Potters Bar were once social housing that generations of families were able to thrive in as a result of them being able to get on the property ladder in the 1980s. The gap for the next generation to get on the ladder is now wider. All because some greedy developers decided to take advantage of a council asleep at the wheel and slow to take action.

This council declined to take action on any of the items we requested in our petition, and couldn’t be bothered to read the necessary report and be prepared to debate the matter when we presented it to the cabinet earlier this month.

I am tired of the incompetence of these clowns. "Someone said that everyone can sue us" is just wrong, and a terrible reason to roll over and do nothing.

The needs of Potters Bar are quite straightforward. Immediate Article Four.
If you don’t have the stones for an immediate Article Four, the non-immediate Article Four twelve month clock needs to start today. The council has already wasted too much time.

Licensing for all HMOs in Potters Bar. The 100+ licensed HMOs in Potters Bar are just the tip of the iceberg.

The council needs to be proactive and find a solution to the housing problem that is not ‘let private developers come in and do whatever they want.’ This only allows people to exploit the residents of a community.

A decision on the petition submission will be made on the 15th April at 4pm at Borehamwood Civic Offices.

How long will this be allowed to continue?