Councillors have welcomed the prospect of tighter rules on short-term holiday lets – commonly known as Airbnbs after the market leading operator.
Brighton and Hove City Council lobbied the government for action – and Councillor Amanda Evans welcomed the announcement today (Tuesday 8 September) by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy.
Councillor Evans spoke out at the start of the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting at Hove Town Hall, welcoming the introduction of new rules from next March.
The Labour councillor chaired the committee’s first task and finish group in 2024. The group looked at potential the adverse effects of short-term holiday lets and how to deal with them including the possibility of regulation.
The task and finish group made 12 recommendations to the council’s cabinet to try to address problems linked to the unknown thousands of homes used for short stays.
In June last year, the council’s cabinet was asked to – and did – lobby the government for a new planning class for short-term lets and for a licensing scheme requiring registration as a business.
Answering questions in Parliament last Thursday (3 September), Ms Nandy said that the Prime Minister Andy Burnham had asked her department to accelerate setting up a register of short-term lets.
Ms Nandy said that there were areas where councils wanted to see short-term lets and that those lets supported the tourism sector.
And in others areas there was an acute shortage of housing for local people which councils should have the power to provide.
Councillor Evans, who chairs the committee, said: “This is obviously extremely good news. It’s not enough. It’s not everything we wanted but it’s a good start.
“Under the scheme, owners of short-term lets will be required to register their accommodation, provide key information about the property, pay a registration fee and obtain a registration number which must then be displayed when advertising.”
Green councillor Ollie Sykes said that he was interested to see how action on short-term lets might address the housing need in Brighton and Hove.
For the past 10 years, Brighton and Hove has not hit its building target of 2,500 new homes a year.
The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, also welcomed the government’s move to regulate Airbnbs, saying that there were about 4,000 homes advertised as holiday lets at any one time in Brighton and Hove.
Councillor Taylor said: “When you think about a city of 270,000 to 280,000 people. That’s a very high concentration.
“If we could bring that down and bring more of those units into permanent residential, whether it’s owned, private rented or in some cases if we could buy them and be social, that would make an impact.
“If we could get from 4,000 down to 3,000, that’s releasing a good chunk of units. It won’t solve everything overnight but that’s one lever among many.”
The council are trying to increase tourism by renting out public space for more and more events while reducing the number of places to stay. It also takes up some housing for homeless and economic migrants. The hotels are filled to capacity. Does anyone else see the problem here?