The former family homes targeted by anti-migrant protests

Tensions over houses in multiple occupation have risen sharply and are often associated with accommodating asylum seekers

At a rally the day after his Makerfield by-election win in June, Andy Burnham promised to end "HMO Britain".

The Home Office had not heeded the fears of "the decent people here" over the conversion of family homes into accommodation for asylum seekers, he said.

Four months later, and with Burnham now in Number 10, tensions in the UK over HMOs -- houses in multiple occupation -- have only grown.

In Greater Manchester, where the prime minister was mayor for nine years and is now an MP, police are investigating more than 50 attacks on homes since October 5 in an anti-HMO campaign.

Officers said they thought children had been paid to carry out some of the attacks, which included bricks being thrown through windows and "No HMO" spray-painted on front doors. One man has been charged with two counts of criminal damage.

Tensions over HMOs are not limited to Greater Manchester. Across the country they have become the subject of fierce local political campaigning, petitioning, Facebook-organised "safety patrols" and online misinformation, often conflating all new HMOs with asylum accommodation.

Typically, HMOs are family homes converted into properties for multiple people, each with their own bedroom but sharing facilities such as a kitchen, and are often used to accommodate students.

HMOs have become more prevalent in recent years. Statistics from planning database Searchland show an 84 per cent increase in HMO licensing applications across England and Wales over the past five years.

That includes sharp rise in parts of Greater Manchester, according to analysis by specialist mortgage lender Together.

The national trend has been driven by a "changing demographic" of young professionals and working people in search of cheaper tenancies, said Ryan Etchells, Together's chief commercial officer, as well as "investor demand".

That demand includes not only private landlords but the government too, as agencies and councils have sought out cheap shared housing for asylum seekers, homeless people, prisoners released on probation and those undergoing drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

The Home Office has increasingly turned to them as it closes dedicated asylum hotels that became a flashpoint for anti-migrant protests in 2024 and 2025.

Since then an online "#NoToHMO" campaign has evolved in parallel, said Kelly Fowler, chief executive of the cohesion charity Belong.

Belong's research suggests "HMOs are now the focus for anti-migration activism", she said.

"Activists are organising petitions and community meetings. But the #NoToHMO movement has also led to threats to residents and damage to property, as we have seen in Glasgow, Thetford, Tameside and Salford."

Many northern councils, including Burnham's local authority of Wigan, have tightened restrictions on new HMOs over the past 18 months in response to tensions.

Since Burnham became prime minister, the government has also introduced planning rules giving them more power to do so.

However, local discontent has not dissipated. Police and councils are monitoring a growing trend of the locations of HMOs being published online, particularly on Facebook, accompanied by often false claims that they are housing asylum seekers.

Durham Constabulary said that it had told one social media user this month to remove an "inaccurate" post "implying that a multi-occupancy address was housing illegal immigrants".

In Heywood, Greater Manchester, the online Facebook group "Heywood HMO protesters" has recruited people for a "guard" to patrol the streets against threats from migrants.

The issue of HMOs has become a growing local political issue and was prominent in Reform's takeover of Durham county council last year.

A largely rural area with many deprived former mining villages, there has been a sharp rise in asylum seekers placed in the county's housing over the past three years, from one person in June 2023 to 605 people in June 2026.

Other government agencies, including London councils in search of emergency homeless accommodation, have also placed people in the county's villages.

"They pop up like weeds . . . a terraced house here, a flat there," the council's Reform deputy leader Darren Grimes told a meeting last week regarding HMOs.

The Home Office had been using Durham as a "migrant dumping ground", he added.

At the same meeting, Durham council passed a motion demanding a list of all asylum HMOs in its area.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

The government has yet to publish a new community cohesion strategy promised in the aftermath of 2024's riots, with much of the unrest taking place in areas where anti-HMO sentiment is rife.

Salford, where most of the Greater Manchester attacks have taken place, has the eighth highest number of HMOs in the country, according to Together's analysis, and a history of far-right activity.

Seven arrests have been made and detectives have analysed footage of "auditors", online influencers who film outside both asylum hotels and supposed asylum HMOs, to establish any connection.

Ashlea Simon, a Salford-based auditor who used to co-lead the far-right group Britain First, posted on social media at the weekend that she had been arrested in connection with the investigation.

Salford's Labour mayor Paul Dennett "categorically" condemned the wave of violence.

"There is a clear difference between legitimate concerns about housing and criminal acts that intimidate residents, damage homes and threaten community cohesion," he told the FT. "Nobody should have to live in fear because of who they are or where they live."

While Dennett has spoken out, Fowler said many local authorities were "struggling to respond", particularly to misinformation.

"We need decisive action from the government across the UK, particularly the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office."

The think-tank Demos, which has researched the response of councils to last year's hotel protests, believes local leaders need to engage.

"In the fallout over asylum hotels, many councils adopted what amounted to a strategy of silence, fearing that speaking out would make things worse," said lead researcher Flynn Devine.

That approach had only "deepened distrust", he said. "It is concerning to see the same pattern repeating with HMOs."