Dec

Bill that would bring in licencing for holiday homes to get second reading

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A new law that would require holiday let properties in tourist hotspots to have a licence is to get its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday.

MP Rachael Maskell’s Short-term and Holiday-Let Accommodation (Licensing) Bill will be debated in the chamber and follows its introduction in September.

Ahead of the debate, Generation Rent has published research that says England’s housing supply lost nearly 11,000 properties to the second home and holiday-let sector between 2021 and 2022.

The campaigning group says that in some areas 2% of the housing stock has been converted to short-lets tourist accommodation over the paste three years leading to greater competition for vacant homes and inflationary pressure on house prices and rents for locals.

Areas most affected by the trend include Leicester, Scarborough, South Hams in Devon, the London Borough of Southwark and Copeland in Cumbria, which all saw more than 1% of their housing stock move into the second homes and holiday lets sector since 2019.

While holiday lets in London let out for 90 days or more a year are supposed to be licenced, Rachael Maskell MP is taking a different approach nationally.

Licences

Her Bill would enable councils to issue temporary licences and cap their number.

Dan Wilson Craw (pictured), Deputy Director of Generation Rent, says: “High nightly rents and the lack of tax and regulation have fueled an explosion in holiday lets at the expense of people who just need a place to live.

“The government is beginning to recognise the need to intervene… councils should have the power to require holiday lets to have a time-limited licence, and cap their number where there is a severe shortage of homes.”

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