February 22nd 2024
Short-term lets rules announced to protect communities
Due to a change in planning rules, local residents should be protected from being pushed out of their communities by excessive short term lets.
The current housing crisis, which began as a result of inflation, is sweeping across England and stopping thousands of citizens from being able to find a home they can afford. If this wasn’t bad enough, local residents are finding they are being forced out of the places they call home as a result of increased holiday lets.
To help combat this, at the beginning of this week, ministers published new rules that will limit the number of short-term lets that are rented out as holiday homes.
The new rules include:
- Planning permission will be required for future short-term lets
- Mandatory national register will provide valuable information and help ensure accommodation is safe
- Proposals will give communities greater control over future growth
- Homeowners can continue to let out their own main or sole home for up to 90 nights a year
Under the reforms councils will be able to control short-term lets by making them subject to the planning process. This will support local people in areas where high numbers of short-term lets are preventing them from finding housing they can afford to buy or to rent.
The changes are part of a long-term plan to prevent a ‘hollowing out’ of communities and address anti-social behaviour. However, the decision to allow for homeowners to rent out their properties for up to 90 nights a year has come as holiday lets help to bring tourists into our country which benefits the economy.
Commenting on the news, secretary of state for levelling Up, housing and communities, Michael Gove said: ‘Short-term lets can play an important role in the UK’s flourishing tourism economy, providing great, easily-accessible accommodation in some of the most beautiful parts of our country.
‘But in some areas, too many local families and young people feel they are being shut out of the housing market and denied the opportunity to rent or buy in their own community.
‘So the government is taking action as part of its long-term plan for housing. That means delivering more of the right homes in the right places and giving communities the power to decide.’
However, experts have claimed that the rules could be deemed as confusing for people who rent out properties as holiday homes.
Simon Barry, Director of Boyer who specialises in hospitality, leisure and tourism, said: ‘Following this announcement many people who let their main or secondary properties via Airbnb or similar platforms will be unsure of the process required to meet new requirements.’
‘It is understood that homeowners are allowed to let their main or sole home for up to 90 nights throughout a year without requiring planning permission,’ Simon said. ‘However, proposed planning changes would see the introduction of a ‘C5 short term let use class’ created in England for those short-term let’s not used as a sole or main home. This would relate to new-build short-term let developments and proposes to grant permissions with conditions that the new use class should apply to them.’
Simon added: ‘Existing dedicated short-term lets will automatically be reclassified into the new use class and will not require a planning application.
‘The new permitted development rights will allow for the change of use from a ‘residential dwellinghouse’ to a short term let and vice versa. However, where local authorities deem there to be an issue, they may use the new mandatory national register and new powers to remove the permitted development rights via an Article 4 Direction. That said, councils will have to be able to demonstrate clearly a very small geographical area with any issue with short-term lets in order to apply the direction.
‘These measures only concern short-term lets, and therefore the planning changes and the register will not affect hotels, hostels or B&Bs.
‘There are around 450,000 short lets in the UK and so hundreds of thousands of landlords will be affected by this change.’
Image: Grant Durr
Housing supply struggles to keep pace with growth in holiday homes