Short-Term Lets are an acute issue in central London, and many other tourist and visitor destinations across the country. The issues are on multiple fronts – 13,000 short-term lets advertised in Westminster alone at a time when there are over 3,000 households in temporary accommodation in the borough; hollowing out of communities; anti-social behaviour and sometimes crime; rising costs for Local Authorities to manage the problem.
Short-Term Lets are becoming increasingly commercialised. I am not referring here to people renting out a room, or their home when they go away. My concern is with the growing number of entire homes consistently used as Short-Term Lets, many of which are now professionally managed.
London is proudly an international city, and we need to make sure that flexible accommodation options are available for visitors. But we will only remain a thriving international city if we address the housing crisis.
There are blocks in my constituency and across London where there are only a handful of permanent residents left. One resident wrote to me that when she first moved in to her flat in Pimlico 20 years ago, she had neighbours, but now she’s worried about building security because of the constant turnover of strangers.
On Thursday 12th September, I led a debate in Parliament to call on the Government to take this issue seriously, and create a compulsory registration scheme for Short-Term Lets, and to make sure councils can enforce the rules and manage the number of homes lost to short-term letting.
I believe that we need to:
– Create a compulsory registration scheme which captures each individual property using a Unique Property Reference Number
– Ensure platforms are sharing data as part of that scheme on the number of nights each property – identified by their Unique Property Reference Number – is listed on their sites
– Make sure the registration fee is reasonable and proportionate, so as not to drive small or individual hosts out of the market
– Make sure that, where whole-home accommodation is consistently being let out on a short term basis, commercial measures are in place, including:
o a named, verified and accountable individual;
o gas safety certificates;
o where necessary commercial waste contracts;
o appropriate insurance
– Create a new planning use-class for Short-Term Lets, but make sure that all applications for short-term lets which exceed ninety days per year are dealt with under the normal process rather than ‘permitted development’, which would automatically entrench the current, unsustainable situation.
– Give local authorities the power to enforce the rules, and to prosecute accountable individuals for anti-social and illegal activity, such as fly-tipping.
These suggestions also learn the lessons of attempts to regulate short-term lets in other major cities. The key takeaway is that these reforms must be brought as a package. A research paper looking at three different German cities by academics at the London School of Economic found that a cap on the number of nights a property could be let out had little impact. It did not increase the number of homes available in the private rented sector, and it actually did not decrease or cap the number of nights homes were available for short-term let.
That was because the data and information piece was not complete via a registration and enforcement regime.
I am a firm believer that we should be using all the powers at our disposal to address the housing crisis. While I know that regulating short-term lets is just a small part of solving the problem, in places like mine in the Cities of London and Westminster, it could improve people’s lives, strengthen our communities and at least ease the desperate need for housing in the private sector.
We must use all the powers at our disposal to regulate short-term lets and address the problems renters face
