Michael Gove has announced major new proposals that would require planning permission for short-term lets, such as Airbnb, if approved.
The new law, designed to address what the housing secretary describes as a “hollowing out” of communities, would require people letting out their property as a short-term holiday home to seek permission from the local authority under a new “use” category.
The rules would not apply to people renting out their main home for 90 days or less in a year.
A mandatory national register would be set up providing councils with information on short-term lets in their area.
Gove said: “These changes will ensure people have more control over housing in their cherished communities.
“We know short-term lets can be helpful for the tourist economy, but we are now giving councils the tools to bring them under control so that local people can rent those homes as well.
“These changes strike a balance between giving local people access to more affordable housing, while ensuring the visitor economy continues to flourish.
Tourism minister Julia Lopez commented: “Short-term lets provide flexibility for homeowners and give tourists more accommodation options than ever before, but this should not prevent local people from being able to buy or rent homes in their area.
“The government is committed to getting the balance right to ensure both local people and our visitor economy can thrive.”
Airbnb has welcomed the proposed new rules.
Amanda Cupples, general manager for Northern Europe, Airbnb, commented: “The introduction of a short-term lets register is good news for everyone. Families who Host on Airbnb will benefit from clear rules that support their activity, and local authorities will get access to the information they need to assess and manage housing impacts and keep communities healthy, where necessary.
“We have long led calls for the introduction of a Host register and we look forward to working together to make it a success.”
The planned changes are part of the government’s long-term plan for housing.
The government also intends to introduce associated permitted development rights – one allowing for a property to be changed from a short-term let to a standard residential dwelling, and a second that would allow a property to be changed to a short-term let. Local authorities would be able to remove these permissions and require full planning permission if they deem it necessary.
Both of these measures are focussed on short-term lets, and therefore the planning changes and the register will not affect hotels, hostels or B&Bs.
Further details of these measures will be set out in the government’s response to the consultations, including the timeline for implementation of the register, the use class and the individual permitted development rights – with the changes being introduced from this summer.
A one man walking disaster who changes direction every week, could his past admitted marching powder use have anything to do with erratic behaviour? .
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Anyone who has to live with short let neighbours in villages blighted with 2nd homes and short let weekend party pads will applaud this long overdue intervention.
Short let guest are often disrespectful, entitled and selfish. They’re there for a few days and pay little regard for the noise, nuisance, rubbish and in some cases nastiness they bring with them.
It makes perfect sense that short let leisure accommodation is required to have C1 change of use planning so local authorities can; balance the competition faced by hotels and guest houses; can monitor the income generated by the hard to track small businesses and to ensure S156 is applied to to properties that currently only meet domestic safety standards and can balance the social needs of the theme parks that have been created.
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I agree with you Robert!
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So after Renters Reform I let a house for an expected 12 months say, then the tenant gives notice after one month, does that make it a short term let for which I may need planning permission?
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it literally says its only for properties being rented out for more than 90 days with a year.
”The rules would not apply to people renting out their main home for 90 days or less in a year.”
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I am not sure how homeowners letting out a room in their own homes “hollows out communities “ such that he has to aim to restrict this activity to 90 days pcy. Even the current 90-day rule in Greater London doesn’t apply to these. #IamStillScratchingMyHead
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We have a hamlet here where there are no lights on any property mid week; they’re empty. About 4pm on Friday 3, 4, or 5 cars arrive and there’s two nights of party, then at 4 pm on Sunday the cars sit in a mile long queue to get away again.
The impact of short lets does more than hollow out communities it makes the pubs and restaurants unpleasant at weekends and empty during the week. Completely unsustainable as #locals end up getting out of the habit of going there. There’s a pattern of repeated take over, makeover refurbishment and within 2 years the excited new owners have left
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The world is not all about you.
Try living in London where buyers come in from all over the world.
In your hamlet the local publicans and restraunters thrive on affluent customers spending money at the weekends.
Most people like going to a busy pub or restraunt rather than one where old bob jim and harry sit in the same seat at the corner of the bar nursing 3 pints all night.
we use Airbrnb all the time.
Stops us paying insane hotel prices.
We do not hold woild parties.
We do spend money in local shops pubs and restraunts.
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We use airn bnb all the time.
It is far better than paying insane prices in some impersonal corporate hotel chain.
We do not hold wild parties.
We do however spend a lot of money in local shops restuarants and pubs.
Sorry if you do not like outsiders in your narrow little world but many places have died because of a lack of visitors who spend money.
Nimbyism lives LOL
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It isnt saying people wont be able to Airbnb the property, Just more regulated. Assuming to stop the problem properties.
Is that not a good thing?
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I didn’t say the world does revolve around me, I was replying to PMT explaining how short let accommodation hollows out communities.
If you had taken the trouble to read what I said you’d realise the money you spend in the 2 days escaping where you live isn’t enough to keep the pubs and restaurants open for the other 5 nights of the week.
It isn’t nimbyism to explain why short lets doesn’t work for the communities blighted by uncontrolled over supply that denies long term accommodation for the staff employed in the theme park
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…but I still can’t see how it would (in what I originally said), as the homeowner would always be there, so if anything, letting out a room would bring in EXTRA money!
For the avoidance of doubt, I agree the industry has to be better regulated, what I don’t agree with (and vehemently so) is trying to restrict how homeowners might best make money from a spare room in the homes in which they live – for the avoidance of doubt, I don’t rent out a spare room in my home.
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This isn’t about spare room short lets its about towns and villages in tourist hotspots where residential accommodation is being used for C1 leisure accommodation rather than as owned or rented homes people can call home.
Its a proposal to introduce a new planning category so local authorities can control how many homes are used for short let accommodation which competes with properly regulated C1 provision while denying people with a somewhere to live
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If you care to read my original comment, which quoted from what Gove had said, you might begin to realise why I commented – which has nothing to do with your original response.
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Surely, for these properties to have become holiday homes, they must have been sold by locals.
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Well put. We had a holiday let 20 years ago, and contributed a lot to the local community. The same arguments about inability of locals to find homes were trotted out back then, and I would question where they’ve been living since then.
We frequently use Airbnb and other holiday lets, and if they were to be scaled back, the local communities would have no income. Pubs and restaurants are struggling as it is, and such a move would be the final nail.
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…you conflate “homeowners letting out a room in their own homes” with ‘property owners letting out a room in their property’.
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Maybe you conflate the ‘room in their home/property’ with ‘their property’.
One is more reasonable if the homeowner is living there also. Like homes near big hospitals are probably fairly “popular” ones to stay in for various different reasons, equating to a greater than 90 days total let in the year.
This is similar to saying – my family member is moving in because their house is too big for them after the death of their partner and they are going to be contributing. I don’t know if we should be seeking planning permission for this.
renting out a house which would be considered a family home is a little different.
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Creating a register doesn’t mean stopping short term letting. It does give councils yet another opportunity to charge landlords for no value.
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Airbnb was legally required to send earnings data to HMRC from 1st Jan this year. As you suggest, this is likely mainly about nailing down tax evasion and fully charging for the impact of multiple short term visitors on local services (which have to be large enough to cope with peak demand caused by holiday accommodation, yet spend much of the year under utilised)
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Which local services would these be?
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In my hamlet, like most small towns and villages, the local publicans and restauranteurs thrive on local people drinking and eating in their hostelries and the local shops thrive on them too, not on short term holidaymakers who fill up at Tesco on the way down. Most of the pubs here where old Bob, Jim and Harry used to sit at the same seat closed down yonks ago, along with half the other country pubs in England and Wales.
Gove is just following many other cities and towns in Europe which have already done exactly the same thing, I’m thinking of Barcelona in particular where the social housing crisis mirrors London’s. AirbnB provides good, cheap accommodation for those of us who don’t like noisy, impersonal hotels; I also use them, but sometimes we need to think of the desperate shortage of permanent accommodation for those not as lucky and well heeled as ourselves and in some places regulation is needed.
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What’s the problem, as AirbnB welcomes the new rules in a very positive way!
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Well put. We had a holiday let 20 years ago, and contributed a lot to the local community. The same arguments about inability of locals to find homes were trotted out back then, and I would question where they’ve been living since then.
We frequently use Airbnb and other holiday lets, and if they were to be scaled back, the local communities would have no income. Pubs and restaurants are struggling as it is, and such a move would be the final nail.
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Where have they been living since then? Half our young locals have had to move away from their two villages to cheaper accommodation in the large towns 12 to 20 miles away. The other half are stuck with their parents.
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It’s highly unlikely the property used for holiday lets would be affordable as rented accommodation. I think the biggest problem is lack of social housing and ‘affordable’ private rental property, and first time buyer family homes, exacerbated by lack of well paid employment and public transport outside the larger conurbations.
Our 2 main Parties are clueless as to how to solve this.
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cmon who even enforces the current 90 days rule in london? no one.
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