A NUMBER of planning applications involving houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) in the city have been approved.

Two planning applications in Bromyard Road involving HMOs were approved by the city council.

In one, a retrospective plan to convert the extension of an existing HMO into two flats was given the go ahead.

The home in Bromyard Road has been a HMO since 2012 and the extension was built in 2014.

The two rooms created as part of the extension were used as communal areas for the residents in the HMO until 2016 when both spaces were converted into studio flats each with their own kitchen and bathroom.

A separate application to convert a five-bed HMO into five flats was also approved by city council planners.

The plan for the building in Bromyard Road would involve converting the bedrooms and shared kitchen and living space into five self-contained flats.

A statement included with the application said: “The accommodation is in need of complete modernisation and decoration and the applicant and current owner had made a start to provide en-suite shower rooms to all bedrooms and to fit a modern kitchen in the ground floor rear room.

“Advice was given by a local estate agent who informed the owner that bedsit accommodation was becoming more and more difficult to let and suggested that self-contained flats is what the rental market needed.”

A “very run-down and neglected” building in Tunnel Hill will also be converted into a five-bedroom HMO after that plan was approved.

A decision on whether to retrospectively give permission for a number of flats above a shop in St John’s to be converted into an HMO has not yet been made.

The space above Costcutters on the junction of Solitaire Avenue and Oldbury Road was converted into a four-bedroom HMO in January 2017 without permission.

The plan received objections from neighbours fed-up with the number of HMOs in the area.