A five-bedroomed house in Hampton could be converted into 11 separate bedsits in a controversial plans which have been opposed by hundreds of local people.

Plans for 6 Morland Close include the conversion of the living room into a bedroom and the addition of two partition walls downstairs.

The owner of the house has submitted a planning application asking the council to authorise the property as a ‘house of multiple occupancy’ with the intention of it being ‘social rented,’ according to plans submitted to Richmond Council.

But Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, of the Hampton North Ward, said: “I’m strongly opposed, we will do everything we can against it. Local residents have got hundreds of signatures on a petition to stop it.

“This is a family house in a road for families and the planning application is unbelievably for eleven bedsits; I have been involved in the campaign against turning houses into bedsits for five years now."

He added: “This is a fight we must win.”

Agent Rameez Tahir, of Pegasus Architecture, who is the agent named on the application, said: "It's an HMO, fair enough, but it's not affecting the the neighbours in any way; all the work that has been done is internal and the tenants won't even have cars."

He added: "The client has paid all the fees to the council and has taken care to make it safe: there is provision for recycling, fire doors, smoke alarms, and wide windows so that in a fire anyone can escape."

Mr Tahir said it could possibly provide much-needed homes for private renters who are on low incomes.

The plans can be seen on Richmond Council’s website, with reference 17/3585/ful.

* The BBC’s Inside Out programme on Monday night highlighted how zone six ‘houses of multiple occupancy’ can earn landlords more per square metre than areas of Kensington.

An example was a traditional family home on a street in Hounslow renting for £1200, but if divided into five tiny flats landlords could take up £4,600.