City of Westminster (Parliament Politics Magazine) – New data reveals over half of Westminster’s short-term holiday lets are illegal, prompting urgent calls for government action as councils struggle to enforce rules.
As reported by Southwark News, more than half of the 117,000 short-term rentals advertised in the capital in 2024 were booked for more than 90 days in a year, which is against the law, according to a research by Central London Forward, a coalition of inner city boroughs.
Adam Hug, the leader of Westminster City Council, stated during the annual housing summit of the Centre for London think tank on Wednesday that his borough is “at the epicentre of the problem,” with short-term rentals concentrated in “the West End, Bayswater, Lancaster Gate, and parts of Pimlico.”
He added: “This concentration has a profound effect on our local communities, which can [include] hollowing out long-term residents, making neighbours subject to significant noise disruption, fly-tipped waste linked to short-term let properties.
But it also impacts the council services which have to pick up the waste, respond to the noise complaints and deal with pressure in the local housing market, as we see private rents rise year on year.”
Central London Forward’s report points out that the number of short-term lets in London has soared over the last decade: “Data shows that in 2015, there were fewer than 30,000 short-term lets in London. This more than doubled throughout 2016 to 60,000, peaking at over 100,000 in 2019.
Numbers of short-term lets then dramatically fell in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, before making a steady recovery.”
According to the paper, ministers should impose a required national registration process for the short-term rental industry and require such websites “to share individualised, unit-level data with local authorities and the Government.”
Mr. Hug asserted that holiday rental websites frequently “mask where the properties are, putting it on a street a couple of roads away, and not being clear what building it’s in.” He argued that local authorities are now unable to effectively, at scale, enforce the current legislation.
The Labour councillor added that it means that hard-pressed planning enforcement teams are really struggling to build the evidence base to get the court to enforce the 90-day rule…
In order to better regulate the market, and to empower local authorities, we really do need the national Government to step up.
Sir Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley, supported the study, stating that boroughs “have an enforcement power that in practice they are unable to exercise” and that legislation have become “completely inadequate.”
“We need to bring those properties back into use as long-term rented properties, or long-term properties for people to buy and live in as owner-occupiers,” he continued, referring to the 65,000 homeless households in London that are currently residing in temporary housing.
Approached for comment, a Government spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The short-term let sector has seen rapid growth in recent years. This can bring economic benefits to the economy and tourism industry, but we know that having excessive concentrations of short-term lets in an area can drive up housing costs and harm local communities.”
He added that, it is the reason why they have abolished the furnished holiday lets tax regime so that landlords are no longer incentivised by the tax system to rent homes as holiday lets, and why they will introduce a short-term let registration scheme that will enable them to reap the benefits of a thriving tourist economy while protecting the spirit of our communities.
They continue to consider further action.
What measures can local authorities take to enforce the 90-night limit in Westminster?
If a property is rented out for more than 90 nights annually, the local council must grant planning permission. This requires an application process that includes public consultation and inspections.
If the rental would disturb the neighborhood or decrease the supply of long-term accommodation, councils have the authority to deny permission.
Without obtaining planning clearance, councils have the authority to punish landlords who exceed the 90-night limit. Fines for multiple infractions can reach £20,000, which is a significant penalty. Councils have the authority to punish violators and issue enforcement notifications as well.
Councils encourage platforms to share data in order to monitor compliance across numerous sites, even though Airbnb enforces the 90-day limit by automatically blocking bookings on its platform after 90 days. To give councils, a mandated national registration for short-term rentals is being implemented.