YORK MP Rachael Maskell has made a parliamentary move to help councils tackle problems she says are caused by the city’s growing numbers of short term holiday-lets.

Ms Maskell this week introduced a bill to licence such properties, which would give all councils powers “to give or remove licences, including for reasons of safety, noise and nuisance and raise local revenue from these properties".

“We need to end the unregulated market,” the MP said on social media, announcing her move.

It follows the York Central Labour MP telling the Commons of the problems, she says holiday-let type properties are creating, as previously reported by The Press.

York has about 2,000 short term holiday-lets, with as many as five or six in a single ‘family street’, and some marketed for ‘stag and hen parties,’ she told the House last Thursday.

Such properties offer a higher return than private rents for their landlords, such as £700 a weekend as opposed to York’s average private rent of £945 a month, she said.

It meant outside investors ‘hoovering up properties’ had in one case paid £70,000 ‘above market value’ to turn a home into a holiday-let.

Landlords were also issuing notices to tenants telling them to leave their homes.

This was fuelling a ‘housing crisis’ in York, with families increasingly unable to afford to live in the city, especially those working in lower paid sectors, like hospitality or the NHS, which increasingly struggles to find staff.

Developers were also building luxury accommodation and turning them into short-term holiday lets.

Homes in student areas were also being used, causing a shortage of student accommodation as well.

Short-term holiday lets also competed ‘unfairly’ against B&Bs and guest houses on how they are taxed, she said.

The MP called the planned York Central scheme with its 2,500 homes an ‘incredible development’.

But after telling MPs that holiday-lets were being used for parties, she told the House: “In my discussions with Homes England, there was a recognition that this could become a party city right in the middle of York.”

People are “half-clad in the streets” and “women do not feel safe”, turning parts of the Groves “into nightmares”, forcing people to move out.

Ms Maskell said the problem was ‘escalating’ with research predicting holiday-let numbers will rise 30 per cent over the next decade.

“It fills me with terror,” she continued.

Ms Maskell added she understood the government was looking at registering holiday-lets but this was not enough.

However, Eddie Hughes, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities, agreed to her suggestion of a round-table between government ministers and MPs on the issue.

Mr Hughes added the government was making tax changes on short-term lets and has measures including spending £11.5 billion in its affordable homes programme, which will provide up to 180,000 homes. It was also helping people get on the housing ladder through its Right-to-Buy and Help-to-Buy schemes.