A Labour MP has accused short let landlords of “hollowing out” local rental markets, and wants Airbnb and other sort let properties to be licensed by councils.
Rachel Blake – Labour MP for the City of Westminster, and the architect behind a Private Member’s Bill to restrict short lets – says these properties have created numerous problems.
She claims there have been “guests leaving cookers on; families with children being kept up with drug-fuelled James Bond-themed parties taking place right next door night after night; and even organised crime outfits renting out apartments for a weekend to harass Londoners, snatching phones and wallets before leaving with their ill-gotten gains.”
She says that in her area there is little effective enforcement of the London rule saying short lets can operate for no more than 90 nights per year without planning permission.
Blake has told the Commons: “This is operationally impossible to enforce because of how difficult it is to get accurate information on how many nights a short-term let is being used.
“In some parts of my constituency, as many as 30% of homes are being used as short-term lets, in the process making the homes that are left less affordable for long-term residents.”
Blake cites the research company AirDNA as stating that nearly 6,000 short lets in the Cities of London and Westminster are being let out for over the 90-day limit.
She wants councils to secure more powers over these properties.
“While every local authority should be able to undertake its open approach to this issue, local authorities such as Westminster and the City of London, where concentrations are so high, need to have the power to decide where homes can be let out and under what conditions.
“The government’s upcoming database is a crucial step in this direction because it can, for the first time ever, provide an authoritative dataset on the extent of this problem”.
This article is taken from Landlord Today