Since the election, Labour has made a real difference in tackling the housing crisis. Reform has begun on our broken planning system; more money has been allocated towards improving our leaky housing stock, addressing rough sleeping and building more social homes; a once-in-a-generation improvement in Renters’ Rights is passing through Parliament by a party unified in its will to improve life for millions of private renters, in comparison to the last Government, divided by vested interests.
One area which makes the housing crisis so complex is how differently it manifests across the geographic and economic diversity of the country. In many places housing supply has dwindled and people have to move away from their childhood hometowns to find somewhere more affordable to live. In many communities homes are old, leaky and frankly unsafe. And in tourists hot spots, the historic cities, coastal towns, and especially in central urban constituencies like mine, the proliferation of short-term lets has had a real impact on the local housing situation.
13,000 properties in Westminster are registered as short-term lets, making as much as 20% of housing stock in wards like the West End. While many of these represent a fair way for someone to rent out a spare room, too often these are entire properties being let out as micro hotels.
This does not just drain our housing supply, but it hollows out communities. In strong communities, neighbours are the ones who watch our kids when we go for a job interview and who help us to book a GP appointment. Instead of these neighbours, residents have to live alongside a revolving door of strangers.
Increasingly, Airbnbs are offering an alternative to the professionalised hotel service, and they needed to be treated at a more equivalent level. This approach needs to have three strands to it.
First, we need accurate information about the scale and extent of the proliferation of short-term lets. The best and simplest way to do this is a national registration scheme, to which would-be hosts upload details of the home being let out, how many nights a year it is available, and proof that they have the right to lease the property. This will be paid for by hosts, with a small fee upon registration, and each property would then have a unique reference number listed on sites.
This is something which Airbnb themselves have called for, and which the last Government was looking into.
Then, basic commercial standards are needed. Just as would be expected for a hotel or a residential landlord, short-term letting hosts should have a named and accountable individual, gas safety certificates, appropriate insurance, and commercial waste contracts where necessary. These accountable individuals should be liable for antisocial behaviour and illegal activity by guests, including fly-tipping.
And finally, local authorities should have the ability to control the flow of short-term lets. The last Government proposed a new use class for short-term lets and for existing such properties to be allocated into this class under permitted development rights. Instead, any and all short-term lets should have to gain planning permission to change use class, and be liable for enforcement action if this process is not followed.
The upcoming English Devolution Bill could well be an opportunity to implement this. In giving local communities the power to take back control over their areas, it would represent a meaningful effort to address this crisis in London, which is “one of the least regulated European cities” when it comes to short-term lets. The Bill could establish a national register, just as the Renters’ Rights Bill has for the private rental sector, with an outline of what activity would be regulated for members of the register. It could then devolve enforcement of both the register to local authorities, with guidelines as to how to proceed with processing existing and new short-term lets through planning. This process should be managed through a scheme based on licensing principles.
After the last Government failed to act to provide common-sense regulation in this area, Labour has an opportunity to make a real difference. We should use every tool at our disposal to solve the housing crisis. For constituencies like mine, properly regulating short-term lets would have a meaningful difference here.
If you enjoyed this piece, follow the link here to read more about Labour’s transformative changes across sectors.
