One third of councillors own a second property within city
Politicians forced to declare interests amid HMO debate
ATHIRD of Birmingham city councillors own or part own at least one second home in the city, declared interests reveal.
A total of 33 councillors (out of 101) have confirmed they own or have financial interests in other properties besides their main residence. Most (25) are Labour members, five are Lib Dems, and three are Conservatives.
The most prolific landlords who declare ownership of at least two additional rental properties are councillors Ayoub Khan (three rental properties) and Baber Baz (two properties in direct ownership and also married to a property landlord), both Lib Dems.
Labour’s Amar Khan (three rental properties plus ‘income from rentals’), Shafique Shah (five rental properties including two commercial locations), Gurdal Singh Atwal (rental properties in three areas of the city) and Shabrana Hussain (her partner owns rental properties in two areas of the city). Conservative Alex Yip has four properties additional to the family home.
Councillors are required to declare any property interests held by them or their spouse or partner within the city.
They are not required to declare property ownership or financial interest in any properties beyond the city boundaries, for example in neighbouring local authority areas.
They are, however, required to list any sources of income as part of their declarations.
Questions have been asked in the past about the property ownership of councillors and whether those are publicly declared in sufficient detail to help inform the public because councillors are often asked to intervene in social housing and rental issues.
They are also regularly called on to debate and decide on policy in contentious areas linked to landlord licensing, the proliferation of exempt properties and the fallout for residents in areas with high concentrations of HMOs (homes of multiple occupation).
Even now, councillors are not obliged to provide any details beyond the locations of any additional owned properties, though some have made a point of including clarifications.
For example, Cllr Mohammed Idrees, the Labour chair of the council’s housing scrutiny committee, has declared that the single additional property he has a financial interest in is not let out as a HMO or as ‘exempt accommodation’.
Former councillor and now MP for Erdington, Paulette Hamilton, ran into problems when the Post investigated her family’s financial interest in a rental property in the city. She had also failed to declare an interest in a housing firm during a debate that included an item about funding for the organisation.
The resulting fallout from that case has been one of the reasons why the council has updated its advice to councillors about declared interests.
The council approved a new procedure last year for declaring interests and members were given new forms to complete last June.
A report to the Standards Committee said the form now requires a fuller description of the interests being declared.