York should be allowed to follow the lead of Edinburgh and bring in controls on short term holiday lets, according to Labour.

The Scottish capital has just become the first council area in Scotland to get the green light for new controls over ‘change of use’.  This introduces the need for planning approval to switch a property from a primary home to a short-term holiday let.

Labour’s housing spokesperson, Cllr Michael Pavlovic said:

“English councils don’t currently have these powers but they should do, and I hope Government Ministers will look north of the border to see how these controls operate and why they are now necessary. 

“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.  It’s become a major issue for the city and we need to establish a new class use for holiday lets, so they are no longer treated the same as traditional residential dwellings in planning terms.

“So far the Government seems to be more focussed on the amount of money holiday lets can generate for their owners than on the impact they are having on the communities they threaten the future of”.

So far the Government’s Tourism Minister has discussed measures such as a registered kite mark scheme and physical spot checks as a response to the impact of holiday lets, something Cllr Pavlovic says suggests little appetite for reform. 

While having holidays lets is important to the visitor economy for York, the impact of Covid and more people taking breaks and holidays in the UK means demand has recently increased – with rising weekly holiday let prices reflecting that increased demand.

Labour councillors say even a distance away from the city centre, property owners can still make in under two weeks what they make in a month through ordinary residential rentals.

The danger for some wards, especially those close to the city centre, is they lose the family housing that’s central to having a balanced community, according to Heworth ward councillor and main opposition Group Leader Claire Douglas.

Cllr Douglas said:

“We see the requirement for planning permission to operate a short term let as necessary to maintain the balance of our communities.  That balance between permanent residents and holiday lets must be right or areas of our city will struggle to retain the schools, GPs and businesses that every healthy community needs to flourish.

“An over-supply of holiday lets can, in some cases, result in issues of noise and anti-social behaviour that begin to threaten the amenity and attractiveness of an area.

“We need the Government to acknowledge that in tourism hotspots, there are clear signs of the damaging impact on our communities of increasing numbers of holiday lets. It should not wait for matters to get far worse before acting”.