A LANDLADY who won a court case to let a “box-sized” bedroom is urging the city council to move “heaven and earth” to find people housing – even if it has to relax space rules.

Retired Judy Crompton, 75, fought Oxford City Council’s decision not to renew her licence to rent out the room in a four-bedroom home in Church Hill Road Cowley because it was 1.4sqm below regulation size of 6.5sqm.

But the full-time landlady won the tribunal at Oxford Combined Court last year when a judge said letting the £300-a-month bedroom was “perfectly reasonable”.

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A Freedom of Information (FOI) request showed the city council has restricted the use or applied a condition that requires other work to be carried out to 247 box rooms.

It has lodged an appeal against the court’s decision.

But Mrs Crompton, who lives in East Oxford, is now calling on the local authority to increase the city’s supply of accommodation by allowing landlords to let smaller rooms.

Mrs Crompton, who owns six houses in multiple occupation (HMO) in the city and used to be chairwoman of the Oxford Small Landlords’ Association, argued rules on rooms sizes in HMOs should be relaxed, because in many cases it was impossible to make them bigger due to construction limitations.

She said: “HMOs are important because there’s so little housing and the population is going up and up.

“I would hope a decent council would move heaven and earth to utilise every decent bit of housing they can lay their hands on.”

Mrs Crompton said if landlords were not allowed to rent out more bedrooms, the city council would face a “perfect storm” of either higher rents or more dormitory-style accommodation.

She added: “If you don’t allow these small rooms to be let, in order to reach the same amounts of rent, landlords will have to put the rent up to unacceptable levels or it will encourage really poor landlords to start renting out dormitories.

“People will be sharing with strangers and that I find unacceptable.”

But city council leader Bob Price warned minimum bedroom sizes were vital to protect the health and wellbeing of tenants.

He added: “The council does not wish to see people living in rabbit hutches or like Harry Potter, under the stairs.”

Martin & Co’s Oxford lettings manager Richard Goodwin said people were demanding HMOs “hand over the fist”, especially students and groups of professionals.

He said: “Oxford has a shortage of housing, the country has a shortage of housing – I am always looking for more HMOs.”

In November there were 1,831 HMOS in the city housing 8,807 tenants, with more than 3,440 HMO licences issued since 2011.

Last month the Oxford Mail revealed the five streets in Oxford with the highest number of houses in multiple occupation (HMO) Residents in Divinity Road, which topped the list, said “enough is enough” and demanded tougher policing of landlords who let their tenants live in squalor.