New small HMO conversions across Warrington’s Central Six wards now need planning permission after a long-planned restriction took effect on 25th September 2026.
The Warrington HMO Article 4 Direction removes the automatic planning permission which previously allowed a house in Class C3 to become a small shared house in Class C4. For owners and investors, that means an application before making the change, rather than relying on permitted development.
The council says the additional scrutiny will help it manage concentrations of shared housing and their effects on parking, noise and neighbourhood character.
A separate immediate Direction has also taken effect outside the Central Six. Together, the two legal instruments now cover the borough. This report explains the original Central Six restriction and its confirmed start date.
Where the Warrington HMO restriction now applies
The Warrington HMO Direction covers the Central Six wards: Orford; Poplars and Hulme; Fairfield and Howley; Latchford East; Latchford West; and Bewsey and Whitecross.
These are the wards identified by the council as having the greatest prevalence of HMOs when it proposed the original restriction. Their legal boundary is shown on the map attached to the sealed Direction.
The evidence behind the original Direction was unusually concentrated. Warrington recorded 226 licensed HMOs across the borough in September 2025, while estimating that around 80% of all identified HMOs were in the Central Six. In the three years before August 2025, the council had also dealt with 60 HMO-related planning cases, including 23 lawful development certificate applications and 37 applications for planning permission.
Planning enforcement had also received 22 reports of unauthorised HMOs over the previous three years, 13 of them involving small properties changing use under permitted development. The council’s evidence was equally clear that Article 4 was not a moratorium on new HMOs: proposals would instead come into the planning application process and be decided on their merits.
The right withdrawn is specifically the C3-to-C4 change in Class L(b) of Part 3 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO. New small HMO proposals within that area must therefore go through the planning application process.
That gives the council an opportunity to assess the proposed use and its local effects. It is not a policy that every application must be refused: the Direction changes the route to permission, rather than deciding the outcome of an individual proposal.
The legal start date is the 25th
The sealed Direction was made on 24th September 2025 and confirmed on 13th May 2026. Both the legal documents and the council’s current Article 4 webpage identify 25th September 2026 as the operative date.
The formal confirmation notice states:
“The Article 4 Direction shall come into force on the 25th of September 2026.”
The discrepancy is traceable: paragraph 4.7 of the March draft HMO SPD said 26th September. The adopted June SPD corrected that paragraph to 25th September 2026, matching the legal documents.
Council says applications will allow scrutiny of local effects
Warrington’s case for intervention centres on the cumulative effect of shared housing on individual streets, rather than a claim that all HMOs are unsuitable. Its stated aims include avoiding overconcentration and balancing housing options with the character of established neighbourhoods.
In the council’s announcement on 25th September, cabinet member John Kerr-Brown said:
“Requiring planning permission for HMO conversions means we can carefully consider their impact before decisions are made”
The council identified parking pressure, noise and effects on communities as reasons for seeking greater control. Planning applications give it a route to consider those matters before a new C3-to-C4 change takes place.
The original Warrington HMO Direction followed a different timetable from the immediate extension. The council gave a 12-month lead-in, explaining at consultation stage that advance notice would allow representations to be considered and safeguard against compensation claims arising from the withdrawal of permitted development rights.
Confirmation in May settled the original Direction’s continuation. The practical change for property owners came on 25th September, when the withdrawn right ceased to be available.
For Central Six owners, the Warrington HMO Article 4 change is therefore simple but significant: a C3-to-C4 conversion now needs express planning permission. For the wider national picture, see Planning Geek’s HMO Article 4 table.
Primary documents: sealed Warrington Direction and legal map; formal confirmation notice; council’s current Article 4 information; council’s reasons and original consultation announcement.
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