Short-term lets are an acute issue in central London, and many other tourist and visitor destinations across the country.
The issues are on multiple fronts – 13,000 short-term lets advertised in Westminster alone at a time when there are over 3,000 households in temporary accommodation in the borough; hollowing out of communities; anti-social behaviour and sometimes crime; rising costs for Local Authorities to manage the problem.
Short-term lets are becoming increasingly commercialised.
I am not referring here to people renting out a room, or their home when they go away.
My concern is with the growing number of entire homes consistently used as short-term lets, many of which are now professionally managed.
London is proudly an international city, and we need to make sure that flexible accommodation options are available for visitors. But we will only remain a thriving international city if we address the housing crisis.
There are blocks in my constituency and across London where there are only a handful of permanent residents left.
One resident wrote to me that when she first moved in to her flat in Pimlico 20 years ago, she had neighbours, but now she’s worried about building security because of the constant turnover of strangers.
I led a debate in Parliament to call on the Government to take this issue seriously, and create a compulsory registration scheme for short-term lets, and to make sure councils can enforce the rules and manage the number of homes lost to short-term letting.
This isn’t a silver bullet to solving the housing crisis, or to eradicating crime and anti-social behaviour.
But when the problems are so large, we have to do everything we can to protect homes for Londoners.
Rachel Blake is Labour MP for Cities of London and Westminster
