PLANS to create the "slums of tomorrow" are still being approved in Wirral – despite the fact no one wants them here.

It comes after proposals for a 12-room house of multiple occupancy (HMO) were approved by the council's planning committee, but not without members describing them as "terribly wrong".

The retrospective application means the building on Corporation Road in Birkenhead – the former Royal Hotel pub – is now lawful.

That's despite the committee having visited HMO accommodation in the past and finding "pretty horrific" conditions.

Discussing plans at the meeting at Wallasey Town Hall last week, councillors concluded that despite the building potentially becoming a "future slum", there were no grounds for refusal because the developer had met the legally-binding criteria for the size of the rooms.

Houses of multiple occupancy are buildings which share common areas that may include bathrooms and kitchens.

The planning committee heard on Thursday that such accommodation is required to have rooms larger than 6.5 sq m per single room, which this accommodation did.

But there was cross-party concern over the proposals, particularly because councillors were not granted access inside the building on a recent site visit.

Committee member Cllr Adrian Jones said: "I am extremely reluctant to see us continue to build today what are tomorrow's potential slums.

"I realise there are limits which we can't exceed, and if we were to continually object we would probably get knocked back anyway on appeal.

"There's something terribly wrong when we're not building enough houses in the first place for people to live in, and enough small units of accommodation, so I would support this but not without first expressing my reluctance that this sort of thing has to happen at all."

Cllr Ian Lewis agreed with Cllr Jones, and referred to how in the past, the committee had refused plans for similar developments – before the decision was then overturned on appeal by the government’s planning inspectorate.

He said: "As a committee over the last year or two we have taken a very strong line on HMOs. Some of the ones we've been to visit have been pretty horrific, and places have been refused.

"It's disappointing we didn't get access to the interior of this particular development.

"I think it's always useful to see what exactly the reality is from an application.

"On the basis we haven’t seen the interior I don’t think we have basis for grounds for refusal, but I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise."

The committee was told the first and second floors had been used as a 10-bed accommodation block since 2008, and although the use as a HMO was licensed, it did not have planning permission.

The retrospective permission would allow the number of rooms to increase from 10 to 12.

According to planning officers, the HMO would allow a "reasonable standard of living" and given the "generous floor to ceiling" height, would have good space and natural light.

Fellow committee member Cllr David Elderton said that it was "dreadful" the committee had to be seen "supporting what is future slum dwelling".

But he said because the single room was 6.5 sq m, and the doubles were 10.6 sq m, the national criteria were met.

He also lamented the fact the committee did not have a policy for dealing with HMOs.

"The first mention of it was 18 months ago when we felt things we didn't like and didn't approve were being overturned at appeal, which we all thought was pretty awful."

Chair Cllr Steve Foulkes said the application was something the committee was seeing "a lot of", giving the council "food for thought".

He added: "In modern Britain people readily accept accommodation that you and I would not want to live in.

"There are people who are in such despair that they will accept and say 'that's better than nothing'.

"I don't think we as a planning committee want people to accept something just because it's better than nothing.

"We want good quality homes with good accessibility. Until that day arrives, we have to make do with what we can and play within the rules.

"Those comments need to be reflected around the council to the highest level."

Cllr Foulkes, along with other members of the committee, called for the policy giving permission to HMOs to be "detached" from that of the local plan – which governs the council's policies for building new homes – "sooner rather than later".

Housing cabinet member Cllr George Davies said a policy was being "looked at as a way forward" that would give the committee more power over HMO applications, similar to one being used by planners in Southampton.

He added: "What we're lacking here at this present moment in time is a policy that gives us the right as a planning committee to determine what state those houses can be in."