A scheme to license short-term holiday lets, often known simply as Airbnbs, could be trialled in Brighton and Hove if councillors and officials can persuade the government.
Brighton and Hove City Council has been trying to come up with ways to tackle the problems arising from the boom in Airbnbs.
In particular, politicians and council bosses fear that the thousands of houses and flats being advertised online for visitors are unavailable to rent to local people in need of a home.
A report to councillors said that ministers had been lobbied to bring in a licensing scheme aimed at raising health and safety standards, preventing rubbish dumping and making sure the proper taxes were paid.
The report said: “The government is still developing the online platform which it intends to test with a number of local authorities.”
An early version could be ready this spring or later this year or possibly even early next year.
At the council, officials from the planning team were involved in discussions as were tourism bosses and those responsible for “environmental protection” such as noise problems, rubbish and pollution.
The details are contained the report to the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee which is due to discuss the subject at Hove Town Hall on Tuesday 24 March.
Last year, the cabinet agreed to look into bringing in stricter planning rules and adding clauses to leases for new homes and conversions to prevent them from being used as short-term lets.
Other ideas included establishing “zones” – similar to those for hotels and bed and breakfasts – with tougher planning rules outside the relevant areas.
Planning chiefs have recently commissioned a “visitor accommodation” study as they work on a new City Plan – or strategic planning blueprint.
Council bosses have found it hard to work out exactly how many homes are used as short-term lets in Brighton and Hove but estimates tend to range from 2,000 to 6,000.
With the tighter regulation of private landlords and shared houses, an increasing number of property owners appear to have switched to advertising their properties on online platforms such as Airbnb.
The Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday 24 March. The meeting is scheduled for webcast.
Surely should have been done years ago, houses with no smoke alarms or fire doors unlike normal rental houses, we booked a 20 bed one @ £4000 a weekend and asked for a business VAT receipt and nothing forthcoming.
Another cash-grab tax.
Invent it and charge it. That seems to be how BHCC rolls these days.
Read other comments regarding safety, when it’s for trade purposes then safety is mandatory, this type has been under the radar for too long.
“Council bosses have found it hard to work out exactly how many homes are used as short-term lets in Brighton and Hove but estimates tend to range from 2,000 to 6,000.” as a percentage of homes?
A good way to work out some of the numbers of properties would be to contact the local estate agents; since these are managing a lot of them, there’s approximately 200-400 in the Marina. These are businesses, and therefore should be taxed for being used as a business.
The BHCC are already targetting its own residents first, those who have shacked up with a partner or friend and are renting their own property are a target for change of use planning fees and double Council Tax; those from outside Brighton who have bought a holiday home/flat and use it a few times a year but let on airbnb via a management company to cover bills such as Council Tax; gas and electric, water (all have day charges regardless of zero use amounting to £00’s per year) –
The big developers whether Brighton based or non-Brighton investment firms, developers and even overseas firms who purchase to profit or rent to rent to build up a portfolio of profit earning ex family rental properties via landlords and re-staging as daily turnover airbnbs and other platforms etc – should be charged a premium.
They currently register each property as a business and apply for small business tax relief to pay zero £
Many are Ltd companies with a multi milliuon turnover or even just a £150k turnover …….. so they end up paying zero tax relief under that loop hole. It needs to be shut down by declaring STR’s disallowed from Small Business Relief. It would be better to identify non-Brighton based multiple property owners, managers or development R2R operators – double their CT on each property or charge 1.25% uplift but charge a £1 per person, head on a bed tax which they can choose to re-cover from their guests in their own prices or seperate as a BHCC charge. Be smarter.
Leave alone owner occupiers with a spare room or studio apartment within a house, holiday let family owners with a single property let out for less than 6 months of the year when they are not in situ to cover their biills the biggest being CT. Sting the multiple property proiteers with a 1.5 or double CT charge or introduce a head on a bed tourist tax charge that those operators can charge the guest and pay over monthly to BHCC …… there is so much that can be gained from fair practice ; balanced actions, quality accommodation providers (weed out the bad players) and collaboration with quality operators who can be engaged with promotion and reinvestment into the City.
A tourist card scheme for example. Be innovative and collaborative rather than all stick and punishment. Raise quality standards and partner tourist enhancing firms not shut them out. But yes; cease the removal of long term rentals and re-staging into airbnb’s by charging a large LTR to STR transfer fee; limiting the amount in any street to under 10%; doubling CT; – but incentivising the best with a promotional site, direct booking facility, temporary tourist discount card, decompositble litter bags, a City map etc – all for use by the guests whether here for a day or a year.Get smarter – and cross collaborate to innovate.
To be clear, the problem has very little to do with those with the occasional spare rooms; it’s the number of full property STLs that are used throughout the year, often unregistered and without permission, paying no business tax for their business, and typically not even on the correct mortgage; I’ve even reported a few that were using council flats. Those particular individuals should be deeply ashamed of themselves, because what they were doing is effectively stealing from the homeless.
The incoming C5 class will enable a lot of ideas that you’re suggesting, and I agree that STLs should be subjected to the same tourist tax when Sussex becomes devolved.
Fair practice starts with regulation!
Benjamin is right that the real issue is full-time short-term lets taking homes out of the local market in Brighton and Hove, not people renting a spare room occasionally. That said, it’s not accurate to say most operators are dodging tax—many are using legal relief schemes.
What’s needed is proper regulation: licensing, safety checks, and targeting large-scale operators rather than penalising small, occasional hosts. Done right, it could protect housing supply without hurting tourism.