Councillors have agreed to take a closer look into what can be done to deal with the issue of short-term holiday lets.
They voted to set up a “task and finish” group to look at the effects of short-term lets after a report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Green councillor Ellen McLeay asked for a report in July into how the council can use planning powers to limit holiday lets, sometimes generically referred to as Airbnbs.
For the task and finish group, a short-term let is defined as a house that is not a sole or main residence but used for holidays, leisure, recreation, business or other travel.
There are an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 short-term lets in Brighton and Hove. In 2013, there were about 500 and in 2018 about 3,000.
The report to the committee yesterday (Tuesday 1 October) said that short-term lets benefited the economy by providing an overlap between hotels and bed and breakfasts for those who preferred more space and affordability.
It also said that restricting or banning short-term lets could make visitor accommodation more expensive and limit availability.
As a result of the boom in holiday lets, fewer properties are available for sale or long-term lets.
Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh asked whether now was the right time for such a task and finish group, with no legislation empowering the council to restrict holiday lets.
Labour councillor Amanda Evans, who chairs the committee, said that the market leader, Airbnb, had offered a registration service
She said that the council could invite the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to send someone to the working group to discuss potential legislation and a timeline.
In September 2022, Councillor Evans was unsuccessful in her attempted to gather cross-party support for setting up a holiday and short-term let registration scheme.
She said that there was a need to take action because, when she knocked on doors in Kemp Town, many were short-term lets.
Councillor Evans said: “There are masses of houses where they’ve got a council tax payer listed. There’s someone on the electoral roll. Presumably, they’re paying for one person’s council tax.
“They’re not registered as Airbnbs. They’re not registered as holiday lets. Yet they have one of those push-button key boxes on the door.
“Half the houses in those streets off the seafront are being run as completely unlicensed unregulated B and Bs.
“They’re not paying taxes. They’re not doing their fire regs. They’re not paying business rates. They’re getting away with giving the council ordinary council tax and making a fortune.
“You knock on the door on a Saturday and a bunch of hens or stags open the door to you and you ask to speak to Mr Smith and they go: ‘Nah, nobody lives here. It’s a full-time Airbnb.’
“A voluntary register would help with that.”
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons asked if the task and finish group could look at holiday lets advertising.
Councillor Lyons said: “I had a message from a resident on this topic. There are short-term lets in a road in Hove where they’re advertising on the website ‘free parking’ at two houses.
“It’s causing a nightmare for residents because there’s a flood of cars and only so many spaces.
“Can you (the task and finish group) monitor the advertising because it’s affecting the residents who do pay for permits and there are not enough parking spaces and it’s causing friction.”
He was told that the task and finish group’s scoping report listed parking as a potential cause of nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
In 2013, a council scrutiny panel looked at “party houses” which catered for large groups of people on stag and hen weekends.
Currently, short-term lets in England are classified as residential use, meaning that in most cases they do not require planning permission.
A number of cities including Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin and New York have taken measures ranging from total bans to limiting the number of nights a year an Airbnb-style property can be let.
Running a business needs an approved waste management contract in place. A heavy surcharge here & at point of disposal is an easy, already available way to restrict these. A quick check with HMRC or Companies House can confirm their existence.
The problem with that is that holiday lets aren’t classified as businesses not are required to.
Very good point raised by the councillor is that it needs national legislation to better control the oversaturation of them where housing is at a premium, and has had a quantifiable negative effect on rents, schools, jobs, local economy and communities.
In planning, you may be correct but if HMRC or Companies House says that it is a business (ie. income is derived from it,) then there is an argument to treat it as a commercial enterprise. The trouble is that nobody wants to address the elephant in the room.
Most are not operated by companie sor LLPs but by individuals. In this case HMRC does not consider this business, but rather and “activity”. Crazy, but true.
As Lass says, there are some quite big gaps in legislation to cover holiday lets on a variety of aspects, such as safety, fire regulation, security, hygiene, and tax purposes which fundamentally is why hotels could never complete with them on cost.
Yes – get rid of more tourists. we don’t need them anyways..
Negative birth rate
Shortage of housing
Massive immigration
You decide.
The hosts who rent a room out say should only need to resister, the mega hosts and hosts who rent entire homes for short term lets should pay an additional levy to fund cleaning up the city invest in better homeless, recovery and community projects to better fund communities who often get no benefit from tourism.
A tourist tax in general could go further these are massive money makers for services which have been battered for years with cuts.
Go along way to cleaning up the city.
Business rates.
Most are not operated by companies or LLPs but by individuals. In this case HMRC does not consider this business, but rather and “activity”. Crazy, but true.
Indeed. You can cover most of Daniel’s suggestions through the implementation of business rates, which start of with registration of properties being used for commercial purposes.
I thought the council had already passed an article 4 directive last night which meant all residential property needed to apply for planning permission to be a holiday let? If so why is this committee wasting its time. A neighbour just needs to complain to planning and the council close the property https://planningapps.brighton-hove.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=SDN0PNDMHTK00&activeTab=summary
Because there is a much wider discussion around holiday lets more broadly than just that one issue, I’m afraid.