(Lab
Co-op): My Lords, I refer the House to my relevant
interests in the register. The noble Baroness, Lady , has raised this
issue many times and deserves great credit for her persistence.
Can the noble Lord say what work he and his department have done
to make sure that holiday lets are not used by landlords to get
round their legal obligations?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of
Housing, Communities and Local Government and Wales Office (Lord
Bourne of Aberystwyth) (Con): My Lords, I certainly can.
I have spent a considerable time speaking to the Short Term
Accommodation Association, which makes up the bulk of the people
in this market, and in particular Airbnb. It proposes a
data-sharing protocol with Westminster Council to enable the
sharing of data. The basic problem at present is that different
suppliers cannot share the data one to another—so Airbnb can take
care of a particular problem relating to it but cannot share the
data with other providers. Airbnb is by far the largest provider,
but there are many others. To enable providers to share data,
they need a trigger from the local authority—any local authority
that has a concern—so they can then share the data. This would
take care of the problem. I will send a letter to the noble Lord
on the progress being made, copy it to all noble Lords
participating in the debate, and leave a copy in the Library.
However, I invite my noble friend to speak to the Short Term
Accommodation Association, as I know that she has particular
concerns about her properties.
(LD):
My Lords, the problem is enforcement, as the Minister rightly
said. Westminster is probably the best example of an authority
that uses the enforcement procedure, but most authorities do not
use the enforcement procedure for the 90-day limit to which the
Minister referred. The market has completely changed. Will the
Minister also address the fact that holiday lets and Airbnb lets
are now dealt with very much on a commercial basis, but in blocks
of flats very often one person or one company owns all the flats
and let them through Airbnb? It is not people just earning a buck
or two on their own home.
: I
remind the noble Lord that of course this is a London issue. The
90-day limit applies only in London—and, significantly, it is a
real issue only in the inner London boroughs. I am encouraging
the Short Term Accommodation Association to speak to those
boroughs—as indeed it is doing—to see if it can carry forward the
process that it is engaged in with Westminster into the other
boroughs. For example, it is developing a Considerate Nightly
Letting Charter with Westminster Council—again, that could be
replicated for other councils. I remind noble Lords that, where a
local authority has a suspicion that the law is being breached,
it can apply to the Secretary of State to restrict the 90-day
power and can take enforcement action. There is the power there;
it is for local authorities to do that.
To read all the exchanges, CLICK
HERE
