See comment below following a Government announcement on efforts to control the spread of short term holiday lets:
Executive Member for Planning, Cllr Michael Pavlovic said:
“There are potential positives but also some negatives in this announcement.
“Overall these changes make it far from easy for local councils to gain control over the concentration of short term lets. The Government’s creation of permitted development rights – rights that will allow a switch from residential home to short term let – is exactly what we were hoping the Government would control rather than facilitate. The process to remove these rights and have councils decide based on local factors will be arduous and long.
“By that time York could have lost hundreds more family homes to the short term let market. We also have concerns about enforcement capacity in challenging landlords who exceed the 90-day maximum letting period where they have no short-term let planning permission.
“Uncontrolled short term holiday lets, as the Government recognises, leads to the hollowing out of local communities. There is now likely to be a flurry of homes being flipped before these changes are made, further exacerbating the problem. This highlights the urgency needed from the Government to enable councils to get to work on applying and embedding these changes at the local level”.