Government plans to clamp down on the number of properties that can be rented to multiple tenants have been criticised by property groups and the National Union of Students.

The NUS said it fears young adults studying at university, immigrants and those on low incomes could be segregated from the rest of society and pushed into areas that could be described as student ghettos.

The Government claims its plans are a bid to prevent such 'studentification' of some areas, but groups including The British Property Federation, National Landlords Association and Residential Landlords Association say the measures are a knee-jerk reaction to the issue and will not solve the wider problem.

In appeasing the complaints from residents in one area, and restricting the number of homes rented to six or more unrelated people, property groups said the Government is pandering to a "not in my back yard" culture and merely migrating the problem somewhere else where opposition is not so vocal.

Furthermore, this is likely to mean those areas where multiple tenant housing is dominant will see an influx of people seeking accommodation and these student ghettos will grow in size - adding to, rather than solving the problem.

The British Property Federation has warned proposals to reduce the number of homes rented to six or more unrelated people would lead to students, immigrants and those on low incomes being evicted from affordable housing in areas where there have been complaints about anti-social behaviour, litter, noise and towns becoming empty during the holidays.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: "You can't use the planning system for social engineering to tackle anti-social behaviour.

"Only a tiny fraction of places suffer from a high concentrations of HMOs and using a broad brush approach to deal with different issues relating to anti-social behaviour makes no sense."

A Communities and Local Government spokeswoman said: "Students bring benefits to the places they live in, but too many residing in one area can impact negatively on a community, running down neighbourhoods and leaving places as ghost towns during the summer."

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