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A REVIEW OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE MANDATORY LICENSING OF HOUSES IN MULTIPLE OCCUPATION IN SCOTLAND

CHAPTER TWO RESEARCH AIMS AND METHODOLOGY

CONTEXT

2.1 The research on HMO mandatory licensing in Scotland formed part of a larger research project designed to provide a contemporary picture of the private rented sector and its operation. The Scottish Executive commissioned the overall study to inform the work of the Private Rented Sector Sub Group, one of a set of sub groups of the Housing Improvement Task Force. The overall research aim was:

"to identify how the existing tenancy regime and licensing framework in the private rented sector impacts on the current operation of the sector, with particular reference to investment and housing quality" (Scottish Executive, 2001b: 2).

2.2 The research was led by the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow with the School of Planning and Housing, Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot Watt University sub-contracted to carry out the HMO licensing research element.

THE MAIN RESEARCH OBJECTIVES FOR THE REVIEW OF HMO LICENSING

2.3 The specific remit for the assessment of the HMO licensing schemes was:

"To provide an initial assessment of the operation of mandatory HMO licensing and the ways in which local authorities and landlords are responding to this" ( Scottish Executive, 2001b: 2).

2.4 The " initial assessment" covered the period from the date of introduction n of the mandatory licensing scheme, 1 ^st October 2000 to the 30 ^th September 2001. This 12 month period encompassed the set-up phase of the scheme and the application for licences for the largest sizes of HMOs only, those with 6 or more qualifying persons (although by examining initial publicity methods, the summer period preceding October 2000 was included).

2.5 At the launch, on 30 September 1999, of the plans for the introduction of a mandatory licensing scheme, the Minister for Communities set out the broad political aims of the scheme:

"… to give increased protection to tenants and support responsible landlords" and " … to address public concerns about fire safety and poor standards by preventing bad landlords from letting shared accommodation that is unsafe or below acceptable standards'' (Scottish Executive, 1999)

2.6 At a subsequent stage, it was also said that the mandatory licensing was expected not to " drive HMO owners out of business" (Scottish Executive, 2000b: 12). In responding to these broad expectations about assessing the effectiveness of the scheme, the research posed 3 specific questions. To what extent, in its first year of the scheme had the scheme:

1. Improved the standards and fire safety of HMOs?
2. Prevented the letting of unsafe or sub standard HMOs?
3. Avoided causing a reduction in the number of HMOs across all sectors?

2.7 The Executive's remit also required the research to examine how local authorities had responded to the scheme. This required a more detailed review of the operation of the scheme, not only from the local authority perspective but from the perspective of other participants as well. The research reviewed the practical implementation of the licensing scheme and barriers that constrained its efficient operation. It also addressed the arguments for and against changing the scheme by altering the exemptions list, the minimum occupancy and by specifically excluding the 3 person HMOs. In considering all these topics, reference was made to the Licensing Order (Scottish Executive, 2000a) and the Scottish Executive's Guidance (Scottish Executive, 2000b) which together provided the policy and practice framework for the implementation of the mandatory licensing scheme.

METHODOLOGY

2.8 As the research was exploratory in nature, a mainly qualitative method of working was adopted. The overall method consisted of structured interviews, carried out between March and May 2002, with a wide variety of key participants to obtain their understanding, experience and views about the operation of the scheme, supplemented by a survey of local authorities to obtain qualitative and quantitative data about the scheme. The contributors to the research are summarised in Box 2.1.

Box 2.1: Outline of the HMO research methodology

2.9 The strength of the methodology lay in the collection of a rich pool of qualitative data but with the small numbers of private owners, tenants, universities and housing associations, no assumptions are made that the data, other than the postal survey data, is representative of the wider population from which the participants came.

2.10 While the research was being carried out, a wider political and policy debate was taking place about the implementation of the scheme involving the Social Justice Committee, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), other representative organisations, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), certain councillors and local community groups. A group of local authority officers met regularly as part of an HMO Benchmarking Group, to discuss the operation of the licensing scheme and to share experiences and discuss problems. The research incorporated additional material (reports, minutes of meetings, letters) from these sources where relevant and not repetitive of the data from the main fieldwork stages. These are summarised in Box 2.2 below.

Box 2.2: Additional data sources incorporated into the research methodology

2.11 The data collected was in a sense, 'dominated', in quantity at least, by the local authority perspective as it was derived from 2 data collection stages and the fact that local authorities had the responsibility to implement the mandatory licensing scheme. However, overall, the fieldwork engaged with a wide variety of participants to gather many views and opinions and no greater importance was accorded to the local authority viewpoint than to any other. The detailed methodology adopted for each element of the fieldwork, its rationale and its limitations are described in Annex 1 the following sections.

SUMMARY

2.12 The overall research aim was to make an initial assessment of the first 12 months of operation of the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. The results obtained would be provisional and subject to review as the subsequent years of the scheme were implemented. The primary objective was to assess the scheme's early effectiveness in terms of raising standards, preventing sub standard HMOs operating and avoiding HMO owners selling up or reducing occupancy numbers. These indicators of effectiveness could only be provisional. The majority of the research focused on a detailed review of the practical operation of the scheme.

2.13 The research method was primarily qualitative and based on telephone and face-to-face interviews. A postal survey of all local authorities provided supplementary quantitative and qualitative data. To ensure different perspectives on the scheme's early operation were taken into account, a wide range of individuals and organisations across Scotland provided their knowledge, experience and views. The opinions expressed by the case study local authorities, private sector HMO owners, universities, housing associations and HMO tenants were not presumed to be representative of their wider populations. The data was largely perceptual i.e. derived from the experience, attitudes, values and opinions of those interviewed. This reflected the remit and exploratory nature of the research study.

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