diff --git a/hooks/neutron_hooks.py b/hooks/neutron_hooks.py
index 57ff2050..2644b314 100755
--- a/hooks/neutron_hooks.py
+++ b/hooks/neutron_hooks.py
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@ from charmhelpers.core.host import (
     is_container,
     lsb_release,
 )
-from charmhelpers.contrib.hahelpers.cluster import(
+from charmhelpers.contrib.hahelpers.cluster import (
     get_hacluster_config,
 )
-from charmhelpers.contrib.hahelpers.apache import(
+from charmhelpers.contrib.hahelpers.apache import (
     install_ca_cert
 )
 from charmhelpers.contrib.openstack.utils import (
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ def config_changed():
             for module in module_settings.split():
                 try:
                     modprobe(module)
-                except:
+                except Exception:
                     message = "Failed to load kernel module '%s'" % module
                     log(message, level=WARNING)
 
diff --git a/hooks/neutron_utils.py b/hooks/neutron_utils.py
index 63d2cf27..9d6a1aab 100644
--- a/hooks/neutron_utils.py
+++ b/hooks/neutron_utils.py
@@ -1134,7 +1134,7 @@ def check_optional_relations(configs):
     if relation_ids('ha'):
         try:
             get_hacluster_config()
-        except:
+        except Exception:
             return ('blocked',
                     'hacluster missing configuration: '
                     'vip, vip_iface, vip_cidr')
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 7d9c2587..44b50231 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 charm-tools>=2.4.4
 requests>=2.18.4
 mock>=1.2
-flake8>=2.2.4,<=2.4.1
+flake8>=2.2.4
 stestr>=2.2.0
 coverage>=4.5.2
 pyudev              # for ceph-* charm unit tests (need to fix the ceph-* charm unit tests/mocking)
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index b835733a..8080ba6d 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -116,5 +116,5 @@ commands =
     functest-run-suite --keep-model --bundle {posargs}
 
 [flake8]
-ignore = E402,E226
+ignore = E402,E226,W504
 exclude = */charmhelpers