Blackpool Additional HMO Licensing — Why There Isn't One

The Short Answer

Blackpool Council does not operate an additional HMO licensing scheme under Section 56 of the Housing Act 2004. If you're searching for one, you won't find it — it doesn't exist in Blackpool.

This matters because many councils elsewhere in England run additional licensing schemes that cover smaller HMOs (typically three or four occupants in two or more households). Landlords who've dealt with licensing in other areas often assume the same applies everywhere. In Blackpool, the regulatory structure is different.

What Blackpool Actually Operates

Blackpool has two licensing routes:

Mandatory HMO licensing — Applies borough-wide (all 21 wards) to HMOs occupied by five or more people from two or more separate households that meet one of the mandatory tests under the Housing Act 2004. The standard test covers accommodation that shares or lacks a basic amenity; separate tests cover some self-contained flats and converted buildings. This is a national statutory duty under Part 2 of the Act, not a local scheme.

Selective licensing — Applies to the eight inner wards (Bloomfield, Brunswick, Claremont, Talbot, Tyldesley, Victoria, Warbreck and Waterloo) from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030. This covers single-household lets, individual sharers and non-mandatory HMO units.

There's no middle tier for smaller shared houses.

Where Small HMOs Fall

The absence of additional licensing creates a licensing gap that depends entirely on geography:

Three or four person shared house inside the eight inner wards — This property needs a selective licence. Even though it's shared between multiple households, it doesn't hit the mandatory HMO threshold (five or more people), and there's no additional HMO scheme to catch it. Selective licensing picks it up because it's a rented property in a designated area.

Three or four person shared house outside the eight inner wards — No local housing licence is required. The property doesn't qualify for mandatory HMO licensing (fewer than five occupants), additional HMO licensing doesn't exist, and selective licensing only applies to the inner wards. Standard HHSRS enforcement and tenancy management duties still apply, but no licence is needed.

Five or more occupants in two or more households in a licensable HMO anywhere in Blackpool — Mandatory HMO licence, regardless of ward. This overrides selective licensing where both could theoretically apply.

Why This Catches People Out

The confusion usually comes from one of two places:

Landlords from other areas — If you've previously managed properties in Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds, you may have dealt with additional HMO licensing schemes. Blackpool's approach is structurally different, and the categories you're used to don't map directly.

Properties near the threshold — A house shared by four people from two separate households is technically an HMO under the Housing Act 2004 definition, even though it doesn't need a mandatory HMO licence. In a council area with additional licensing, this would need a licence. In Blackpool, it only needs one if it's in a selective licensing ward — and then it gets a selective licence, not an HMO licence.

The licence type matters because the conditions, the fee structure and the inspection standards differ between selective and mandatory HMO licences. HMO conditions include minimum room sizes and specific amenity ratios that selective conditions don't impose.

Converted Buildings — the Edge Case

In buildings converted into self-contained flats (Section 257 HMOs), Blackpool's additional licensing gap means each individual rented flat in the eight inner wards needs its own selective licence if it's let to a single household or one-to-two-person household. If an individual flat within that building is let to five or more people in two or more households and meets a mandatory HMO test, that specific flat needs a mandatory HMO licence.

The building as a whole isn't licensed as a single unit under additional licensing, because additional licensing doesn't exist in Blackpool.

The Blackpool Landlord Licensing Guide includes the property classification decision tree that works through these scenarios step by step, so you can identify exactly which licence — if any — each property needs.

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