This week, Newport City Council revealed that its planning division would tackle inhabitants’ worries about the growing quantity of apartments and houses in multiple occupation receiving permission throughout our area.

Their solution was to grant approval for additional ones. Locals have expressed concern. These projects fuel community problems, including traffic issues, disturbance, offences, those without homes, and the gradual disappearance of neighbourhoods suitable for families. These planning consents are eliminating scarce housing for families and substituting conventional residences with crowded, temporary living arrangements.

Rather than solving this essential requirement, the expansion of flats and HMOs appears motivated by financial gain instead of community welfare, with the council involved through categorising them as affordable housing, among various other labels implying similar things.

HMOs do not constitute family housing; households are placed in temporary accommodations and added to a register that expands weekly. We are unaware of who occupies these flats; the council could address allegations that they house newcomers and those without accommodation from elsewhere by being transparent, rather than shielding themselves with data protection regulations.

We do not require identities but need to know WHETHER they are local residents.

Instead, HMOs are being promoted as financial ventures or properties offering substantial rental returns, contributing to a property sector that emphasises profit over the long-term security and viability of our neighbourhood.

Newport City Council must reassess its planning guidelines, which involve endorsing every submission received without evaluating any consequences.

The public deserves an approach that creates secure, family-appropriate communities and supplies suitable housing for all residents, not merely an increase in lucrative apartments and HMOs, and choices made that serve the community’s needs, not developers’ earnings. Our town centre is already somewhere people avoid after dark, and requires regular police patrols during daylight hours. What will it take for the council to take action?

Mervyn James,

Newport.