East Oxford residents have welcomed Government discussions on giving councils the power to stop residential streets spiralling into so-called student ghettos.

Housing Minister Iain Wright told MPs in a Commons debate on Tuesday that he would begin consultation to restrict the ability of private landlords to rent out family homes to groups of students later in the year.

Campaigners, including Oxford East MP Andrew Smith, want landlords forced to get planning consent to convert any home into a house of multiple occupation (HMO).

Currently this only applies to buildings for more than seven tenants.

The news has been welcomed by communities around East Oxford who have to cope with a large influx of students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes every September.

Divinity Road resident Elizabeth Mills said there were 13 HMOs in the first 20 houses of her street. She said: "This is fantastic news and it's about time.

"Living standards for six months when students aren't at university are fantastic but for the other six months it's fairly horrible.

"We need this legislation to stem and reduce the proportion of properties in multiple occupancy to preserve our comm- unities.

"This year our student neighbours have been great, but last year we had the students from hell - having sex and urinating in the garden, and shouting and screaming until all hours."

The 53-year-old management consultant for charities added: "The road has slipped into becoming a student ghetto. Any more would be unbearable."

Abi Johnson, 35, a mother-of-one living in Hurst Street, said: "We're reaching saturation point. Many private landlords do nothing to maintain their properties and it's pretty grim for students and the rest of us who live here."

Arthur Davis, 79, of Crescent Road, said: "It's a good idea because car parking has become terrible on this road.

"A HMO brings three or four more cars to the street."

Oxford City Council has put in a bid to become the first council to force landlords of all HMOs to apply for a licence.