Joint open letter calling for Fairer Housing, Stronger Communities

To Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

We, the undersigned organisations are united in our belief that the proliferation of short-term holiday lets and second homes is having a distortionary effect on the housing market in and around tourist ‘hotspots’, with significant negative impacts on local communities. House prices have increased and the number of properties available for long-term rent has sharply decreased in areas like the Lake District, North Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall as well as in cities like York. Properties given over to holiday lets and second homes are underused and often empty. The consequent decline in an area’s permanent population renders local schools and services unviable, all the while local people are priced out of the areas that they grew up in and have little choice but to move away, taking with them the very fabric of the community.

Addressing this problem hinges on tightening the rules on short-term letting, (further) disincentivising second homes and bringing underused properties back onto the housing market. Not only will this restore community vibrancy in affected areas by making homes available to live in once again, but it will also reduce the amount of new build needed and ease the pressure to put new homes in less sustainable locations.

We urge you to expedite the introduction of a mandatory national register for short-term let visitor accommodation. This must apply retrospectively, that is, to existing as well as new short-term lets.

To make the register an active tool for reducing the community impacts of short-term letting, new legislation should be introduced requiring short-term holiday lets to secure a license from the relevant Local Authority. Local authorities should be empowered to refuse new licences where a significant proportion of properties are already given over to holiday letting or to remove a license where there are adverse impacts on neighbouring residents.

Making dwellings, holiday lets and second homes separate use classes with a requirement for planning permission to change from a permanent dwelling to a holiday let or second home would give Local Planning Authorities the power to refuse planning permission where such changes in uses threaten to hollow out communities.

Finally, introducing a requirement for holiday lets to pay council tax (including any premium in place) rather than what tend to be, certainly in rural counties, much lower business rates would close the loophole by which holiday let owners are, in effect, rewarded for the negative social impacts of having converted their property. In doing so, it should encourage owners to rent their property out to people who want to make a home in, rather than just visit, an area and so make more efficient use of properties.

Delivering these measures would bring a better balance between the value that tourism brings to local economies, the needs of those wanting to stay in, and enjoy, Britain’s most beautiful towns and countryside, and the needs of permanent residents.

Signed

Michael Hill, Chief Executive, Friends of the Lake District
John Watkins, CEO, National Landscapes Association
Cllr Keith Reed, Chair, Arnside & Silverdale National Landscape Partnership
Joy Pemberton-Pigott, Chair, Above Derwent Parish Council, Cumbria
Cllr Anne Brodie, Chair, Claife Parish Council
Vivien Little, Clerk to Keswick Town Council
Charlene Iredale, Clerk to Lakes Parish Council
Liz Unsworth, Chair, Silverdale Parish Council
Joyce Stangoe, Director, Whitby Community Network CIC
Lorrainne Smyth, Chief Executive, ACTion with Communities in Cumbria
Peter Toes, Chair, Keswick Community Housing Trust, Cumbria
Chris Batten, Chair of Trustees, Lakeland Housing Trust, Cumbria
Christopher Coates, Chair, Lune Valley Community Land Trust
George Winn-Darley, Chair, North York Moors Association
Jonathan Riley, Chair, Friends of the Dales
David Green, Chair, Friends of the South Downs
Robyn Gummer, Chair, Exmoor Young Voices
Dr. Rose O’Neill, Chief Executive, Campaign for National Parks