City of York Council calls for new powers to tackle huge rise in holiday lets

Fears have been raised about the impact websites such as Airbnb are having on local communities, with politicians saying they are leading to a growth in evictions and that ‘party houses’ of more than 20 people are making neighbours’ lives a misery.

A scrutiny paper has been produced by City of York Council officers in response to a government call for evidence on the rise of holiday letting.

It shows that the number of short-term holiday lets in the city has risen from 937 in January 2018 to 2,055 in July 2022, concentrated mostly in the city centre. The number of entire homes available has risen from 609 to 1,714 over the same period – a 181 per cent increase.

The number of active rentals and entire homes available in York is higher than comparator cities such as Bath, Lancaster, Oxford and Cambridge.

York Labour’s housing spokesman, Cllr Michael Pavlovic, has called for the government to follow in the footsteps of Scotland by requiring owners to apply for planning permission before they can change the use of the property from a residential home to a short-term let.

There are significantly greater returns available for landlords in renting out a short-term holiday let compared to a longer-term rental.

Cllr Pavlovic said: “The impact of unhindered change of use to holiday lets is enormous. It results in families being evicted from their homes, in more people joining the housing waiting list for social housing and in a reduction in the amount of ordinary rental properties available for York residents.

“The overall impact is also York becoming even more unaffordable as more and more family homes are snapped up to be run as businesses.”

The council’s report suggests that the new planning powers, along with a new licensing regime, would be the best way to get a handle on the number, distribution and standards present in holiday lets.

But it said that proving a correlation between rising house prices and the growth of holiday lets was “extremely difficult”.

The report stated: “Numbers of entire home short-term holiday lets represent a relatively small percentage of the total properties available in the city (2.18 per cent of the private sector dwelling stock) and therefore it is reasonable to assume that at a city level, it is not causing a major problem to the housing market but may be having a greater impact at a more micro level.”

The council’s executive member for housing and safer neighbourhoods, Cllr Denise Crahgill, backed the suggestions in the report.

Cllr Denise Craghill

“Whilst many holiday lets cause no problems whatsoever to local communities, the larger properties operating effectively as ‘party houses’ with up to 24 guests are already having very negative effects on residential neighbourhoods,” she said. “Local councils need more powers to control a potentially growing imbalance.”

But Cllr Craghill said it was important to remember that short-term holiday lets play an “important role” in the city’s tourism economy and that part-time letting of rooms can be a valuable source of income for homeowners.

Responses to the government’s consultation, which closes on September 21, will inform the development of policy options surrounding a tourist accommodation registration scheme in England, which it intends to consult on later in 2022.

Earlier this year, York Central MP Rachael Maskell said the measures being considered by the government did not go far enough.

In June, she introduced a bill to parliament that would give local authorities the power to issue fines and to remove licences, and seek to introduce bans on such properties in certain areas.