Three councils took decisions on HMOs within a fortnight in August 2026, and the tools they are reaching for are changing.
Stoke-on-Trent’s cabinet approved a package on 11 August 2026 built around a city-wide Article 4 direction and a new licensing scheme, with ward-level caps following in a Local Plan policy that is not yet adopted.
Bolton’s cabinet agreed a borough-wide licensing scheme on 17 August. Burnley then agreed to consult on extending its Article 4 direction to the six wards it does not yet cover.
For anyone underwriting a conversion in the north west or the midlands, the change that matters is not the fee. It is that permission is being set up to be refused by arithmetic rather than judged on merit.
In short
- Three councils made HMO decisions within a fortnight in August 2026: Stoke, Burnley and Bolton.
- Stoke’s cabinet approved a city-wide Article 4 direction and new licensing on 11 August 2026; ward-level HMO caps sit separately in its Local Plan, not yet adopted.
- Burnley’s executive agreed in August to extend its Article 4 direction to its remaining six wards. The council made the direction on 25 September 2026, consultation runs to 5pm on 6 November 2026, and it is due to take effect on 27 September 2027 if confirmed.
- Bolton’s cabinet agreed borough-wide licensing on 17 August 2026, expected live in early 2027.
- Permission is being set up to be refused by arithmetic rather than judged on merit.
Stoke would cap HMOs by ward
Stoke-on-Trent City Council published its proposals on 4 August 2026.
A city-wide Article 4 direction would remove the permitted development right that lets a family house become a small HMO without a planning application. That part is familiar. The rest is not.
Separately from that package, the council’s emergent Local Plan carries a ceiling on HMO numbers in every ward:
| Ward concentration | HMO ceiling |
|---|---|
| Very high concentration | 4% |
| High concentration | 2.5% |
| Everywhere else | 1.5% |
A new HMO would be supported only where it would keep HMOs at or below 5% of all homes within a 50 metre radius.
Two HMOs could not sit side by side under a single frontage, and a house could not be sandwiched between two of them.
The ward ceilings limit HMOs across a whole ward, while the 50 metre test limits clustering around the site itself; the council presents them as separate limits in the same draft policy.
The published cabinet decision of 11 August 2026 approves introducing the city-wide Article 4 direction, subject to following the statutory processes necessary, and approves additional licensing subject to consultation and detailed design.
That is a decision to proceed, not a rule you are bound by yet.
At the last check in September 2026, no Article 4 direction covering HMOs was in force in Stoke, and the council’s existing Article 4 directions relate to its conservation areas, which control alterations rather than use.
Burnley consults on six more wards
Burnley has had an Article 4 direction on small HMO conversions covering nine of the borough’s fifteen wards.
The council’s Article 4 direction page records it as made on 13 October 2023, confirmed in June 2024, and in force from 14 October 2024.
It made a new non-immediate direction on 25 September 2026 extending coverage to the remaining six wards, now out for consultation until 5pm on 6 November 2026:
- Briercliffe
- Cliviger with Worsthorne
- Coalclough with Deerplay
- Hapton with Park
- Lanehead
- Whittlefield with Ightenhill
The proposed direction is non-immediate, and that is the detail carrying the money.
A non-immediate direction is announced well ahead of taking effect, and the council’s page says the new direction, made on 25 September 2026, is due to come into force on 27 September 2027 if confirmed, after a six week consultation that closes on 6 November 2026.
Until then the permitted development right survives in those six wards.
As LandlordZONE reports, Councillor Howard Baker, the executive member for housing and planning, says removing the rights will “give the council more control over how many there are and where”.
Bolton licences nearly every HMO
Bolton’s cabinet agreed its additional licensing scheme on 17 August 2026.
It is borough-wide and it catches properties occupied by three or more people from different households who share at least one basic amenity, which pulls smaller HMOs into a regime that until now applied to those with five or more occupants.
The fee is £1,211 for a licence of up to five years, and the council expects the scheme to be fully operational in early 2027.
At the full term that is roughly £242 a year per property before a single repair is done.
The sharper number is the room standard: the council’s consultation document sets a minimum of 7.5 square metres for a single-occupant bedroom against the statutory 6.51.
Newly licensed properties get up to three years to comply. The council’s conditions also require training for the licence holder or their managing agent.
A room that lets today may not qualify later, which is a supply question as much as a compliance one.
Licensing, Article 4 and ward caps
Licensing, Article 4 and concentration limits do different jobs, and they are not interchangeable.
- A licence is a cost you can budget for.
- An Article 4 direction means you need planning permission, and a well argued application can still succeed.
- A ward cap is neither. If the ward already sits at its ceiling and your target property would push it past, the merits of your scheme do not come into it.
That is the shift worth registering.
Our earlier piece explained why licensing had become a national cost line rather than a local irritation, and that still holds.
What is new is planning policy being written so the answer arrives before the application does.
What this means for property investors
Check the three statuses separately, and do it at offer stage. Licensing, Article 4 and any concentration policy are three different questions to three different parts of a council, and a clean answer on one tells you nothing about the other two. Our guide to Article 4 directions and HMO investing sets out how to establish whether a direction is in force, proposed or absent at a given address.
Treat a non-immediate direction as a dated window rather than a reprieve. Burnley’s six wards keep the permitted development right until 27 September 2027 if the direction is confirmed. A conversion completed inside that window stays lawful afterwards. One that is not becomes a planning application in a borough that has already said what it thinks.
Price consented stock higher where the door is closing. Restricting new conversions makes existing lawful HMOs scarcer, and scarcity supports the value of stock that already holds its consent and its licence.
Do not underwrite a decision to proceed as though it were law. Stoke’s ward caps sit in an emergent Local Plan policy that is not yet adopted, so they could still be changed or dropped at examination. Equally, do not treat consultation as a reason to relax: Burnley’s nine covered wards went out to consultation in late 2023 and have been in force since October 2024. The pattern is spreading beyond these three. Bradford’s Reform UK group, which leads the council, said in a statement on 19 September 2026 that it will bring a motion for an Article 4 direction across the district to the council meeting reported for 14 October 2026. Breckland Council’s cabinet resolved on 28 September 2026 to authorise an immediate Article 4 direction removing the permitted development right for small HMO conversions in defined areas, subject to final legal checks, and the Dereham Times reported the vote as unanimous. The council’s decision record does not yet show the direction as made, so check its boundary and effective date with the council. Hull City Council, which already has Article 4 controls in parts of the city, was reported by Property118, citing Hull Live, on 28 September 2026 to have backed a motion for tighter HMO controls; the report gave no implementation timetable or full wording. Treat Bradford and Hull as risks to watch rather than rules to price in today. Breckland is different: an immediate direction can remove the right as soon as it takes effect, so confirm its position and boundary with the council before relying on the right there.
This is general information, not advice on your position, so take independent advice before acting.
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