Manchester City Council bosses are writing to the coalition government following the scrapping of a scheme intended to stop communities becoming aversely affected by the spread of shared houses.

The government has announced it is to scrap recently introduced rules stating that developers must apply for planning permission to rent properties out as houses in multiple occupation, where more than two unrelated people share a house.

Now, the City Council will be writing to Housing Minister Grant Shapps, urging him to reconsider the move.

The City Council had welcomed previous legislation, introduced in April, that would have enabled planning officers to control the spread of shared houses in areas like Fallowfield and Withington.

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In these areas high concentrations of houseshares can have a negative effect on the surrounding neighbourhood, by causing an increase in noise and disturbance or by causing the types of shops and services in those areas to change.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced on June 17 that the recently introduced rules would be overturned in October.

Under the coalition government's new system, if the City Council wanted to control the spread of shared housing it would have to introduce an Article Four Direction - a much lengthier process which was discarded by the previous government following consultation with authorities across the country.

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council Executive Member for the Environment, said: "The new system will make it more difficult to address the situation in areas like Fallowfield and Withington, and we are very disappointed the new powers have been scrapped with no consultation.

"We will be writing to the coalition government letting them know how badly this move will affect us and urging them to reconsider."

(CD/GK)