Crackdown on rogue holiday let landlords planned

Rogue landlords who let their properties on websites such as Airbnb but dodge tax and business rates and breach regulations are to face a crackdown in Brighton and Hove.

The city council's cabinet agreed to lobby the government for the power to licence landlords and called on ministers to change planning rules, when it met on Thursday.

The East Sussex authority wants a clearer idea of the extent of the sector in Brighton and Hove where thousands of properties are advertised on short-term holiday letting sites.

Leader Bella Sankey said: "It is important we work together with the sector to build a better picture of the local situation (and) lobby government for more powers to help manage it."

Labour councillor Amanda Evans, who chairs the council's place overview and scrutiny committee, led a group which contacted councils across the country to learn how they dealt with the effects of holiday lets, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The group had found up to 6,000 homes advertised as holiday lets in Brighton and Hove on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, but with just 400 registered as businesses.

Ms Evans said: "There are a lot of people who are breaking current law and maybe are not even aware.

"They're not registered as businesses. They're not paying business rates or business taxes or making business waste disposal arrangements.

"But they're not aware of that necessarily, and we don't know where they are to enforce legislation."

She urged the council's cabinet to use the City Plan, a strategic planning policy document, to bring in controls.

Members agreed to gather evidence with a view to coming up with ways to do this.

Ideas included planning conditions to prevent new homes or conversions from being used as holiday lets, as well as zones where lets were permitted or restricted or prohibited.

In July a bill is due to be debated in the House of Commons which would license and regulate the sector.

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