Housing for illegal migrants has quadrupled just a stone’s throw away from Shabana Mahmood’s constituency, it has been revealed.
Sandwell in the West Midlands has seen an enormous increase in the number of HMOs since 2015.
Sandwell is only a few miles away from Ms Mahmood’s constituency of Birmingham Ladywood.
In 2015, the local council estimated there were 835 HMOs in the area; however, that has now skyrocketed to 4,200 last year.
Bearwood Road in Smethwick has at least 19 HMOs in operation that can house more than 140 occupants.
One councillor told The Sunday Times: “We wouldn’t put battery hens in places like this.”
During his Makerfield by-election victory speech, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut-price approach to [housing] procurement, that means areas like this can end up like HMO Britain.”
Landlords find HMOs attractive as they can usually earn more rent from multiple occupants than from a family or a couple.
Sandwell has seen a boom in HMOs in the last 10 years
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Chris Miles and his wife Brigitte Hardt had lived for 22 years in Eastleigh, Hampshire, next to an elderly woman.
Following her death last year, aged 94, her three-bedroom house in Archers Road was bought by property investors who turned the house into a six-room HMO.
The couple was only made aware of the plans when the landlord applied for a kitchen extension.
Concerns were raised over parking and the noise coming from the house.
The surge in HMOs is in close proximity to Shabana Mahmood’s Birmingham Ladywood constituency
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Ms Hardt told The Sunday Times: “We could put our opinion into the council for the kitchen extension, but not the change of use from an ordinary house to a six-room HMO.”
The couple was powerless to stop the transformation, leading to neighbours stepping in and leading a campaign to stop HMO development by persuading the council to issue an Article 4 directive.
The intervention would see the removal of permitted development rights for HMOs and require the landlords to obtain approval before transforming the house.
The spike in HMOs comes as the Tories have claimed that British workers will be an average of £2,500 poorer a year by 2031, due to the impact of immigration.
Figures provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England show that immigration will cost UK staff a total of £89.8billion in suppressed wages over the next five years.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “High immigration has real consequences across our whole society, and British people feel indirectly in how much they earn.
“Labour have opened the door without any plan to deal with the consequences.
“The next Conservative government will introduce a binding annual cap, close the loopholes that let temporary visa holders stay indefinitely, tighten the conditions for ILR, and extend the period required.
“Sadly, Labour don’t have the backbone to do any of this.”