Short-term holiday lets in Brighton and Hove could face regulations and restrictions after councillors unanimously backed taking a deeper look at the “saturation” of Airbnbs.
Green councillor Ellen McLeay called on Brighton and Hove City Council to lobby the government to give planning powers to local authorities to regulate short-term lets.
At a meeting of the full council last night (Thursday 11 July), she asked that officials prepare a report aimed at giving the council more power to deal with the issue.
Councillor McLeay cited the measures being taken to try to tackle the spread of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
She said that in her ward, West Hill and North Laine, there were almost entire streets given over to short-term lets, creating “ghost” neighbourhoods.
She cited a University College London study which found that areas of the capital with the most Airbnb listings tended to have higher weekly rents and a lack of affordable housing.
Councillor McLeay said: “A member of the North Laine Community Association commented last time we met on the reduction of families in the area.
“They are priced out and therefore there are fewer kids living in the area – another factor contributing to class number decline for our inner-city schools.”
One of those schools, St Bartholomew’s Primary School, which is in the West Hill and North Laine ward, is due to close later this year because of falling numbers.
Airbnb and Vrbo currently list 4,500 Brighton and Hove properties, she said, adding that Barcelona was one of the first European cities to bring in restrictions. Other big tourist destinations such as Florence, Lisbon and Paris have done the same.
Labour councillor Gill Williams, the cabinet member for housing and new homes, has previously tried to push for a voluntary registration scheme.
Councillor Williams has written to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner, asking the government to bring in licensing for all short-term holiday lets.
She also asked for a change to national planning policy to allow councils to control the number of licences in areas under pressure.
She said that she received a cabinet member briefing saying that 6,848 homes were listed on short-term letting sites over the past year. Of these, 4,964 listings were active and 78 per cent were entire homes.
Councillor Williams said: “We do fully appreciate that the tourism industry contributes a lot to the economy of our city and we can’t underestimate that either.
“It appears to me we are in a topsy-turvy world at the moment where we have many hotels and guest houses in this city that are used for emergency accommodation where we don’t have any homes for people.
“Here’s an idea, why don’t we put our residents in our homes and use our hotels for tourism.”
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows said that too many holiday lets were linked to noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
She said: “To have a register of those properties would be appropriate so we know where the majority are, although I suspect we already know that from the complaints.
“There will always be those who rent out their properties just for the weekend while they’re away.
“For Airbnbs that are full-time, it would be useful for us as an authority to have a register.
“(It would) also useful for those landlords seeking to rent out their properties so they know their consistent standard of property can be mentioned and be good for our economy at the same time.”
I completely agree with a register of where AirBnBs are. I see them being in the same position as HMOs. The need to balance them out is important.
Probably be more worried about the number of new barbers there are in Brighton & Hove. Only cash, hardly anyone ever in there and the stylists driving around in new Mercedes and BMW’s.
Follow the money rather than try and dictate how people choose to use their property.
What and get called racist ? Not this council
Balance is important but don’t underestimate the value this sector has to Brighton’s economy. It is also one of the few green success stories. Brighton was built to be a tourism city and restaurants, bars, shops etc are filled with these customers and unlike most day trippers they spend a lot of money locally. The question really should be are there too many hotels and could some of these be converted into housing. There was a huge opportunity for instance behind the Metrople to do this but the council just seems to want more and more hotels.
How is it a “green success story”? Sheer capitalist greed to make money out of tourists. Tourists that will drive a car to the city and not pay anything to the local taxes \ council tax \ etc.
I run a small business from home, but cannot throw an envelope away in my paper recycling bin. Yet these AirBnB businesses are allowed to abuse the system. How is that fair? They add to the refuse levels but not pay business rates to dispose of that trash…
Killing neighbourhoods like this has to stop. Building houses behind the Metropole doesn’t make sense. Getting the AirBnB’s back to family housing needs to be done. These are worse than students.
I agree that Holiday lets like this should be paying business rates as it is…well, a business. They should also follow the same rules and regulations that are applicable to hotels and similar.
Article 4 direction cannot limit AST. An AST can be for 2 days or 2 years. The council has no powers to restrict this. Ellen McLeay Is ill informed and badly advised…… typical of Greens in his city.
However, they aren’t typically getting AST as these are hire agreements, which have a big set of legislative differences, also that would invalidate their mortgage on the property in many instsnces.
Still, it makes a good point that these potentially need to be specifically and more definitively defined in law, so the loophole you are describing cannot happen.
Still not a substitute for building social housing. Just saying…
Total agreement with you there. It is just a piece of a much larger puzzle, but attacking it in lots of different ways improves the situation in the short, medium, and long-term in a comprehensive and multifaceted way.