By Trekbat,

2. The growth of the UH has led to an increase in the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) often owned by greedy landlords who do not live here and whose only interest is in maximising their returns. As a direct result, the town has seen a loss of green verges to make way for additional on street parking (as there are often several vehicles per HMO); noise and litter has gone up; and the value of neighbouring residential properties have gone down (as HMOs are often characterised by badly – if at all – maintained houses and gardens); residents' quality of life have suffered and many families have moved away – only for their properties to be bought by buy-to-let investors as young professionals and families are unlikely to want to buy a property next to or overlooking one of these eyesore properties. Hence the problem has multiplied to the extent that certain parts of Hatfield have over 50 per cent HMOs – in short, a growing population of short-term residents with no long term interest in the town.