Westminster Council has warned the Government that landlords may be able to exploit new short term letting registration rules.

Long-awaited and overdue Government plans will make it possible for landlords to reclassify short term let properties already breaching existing regulations, by using a loophole in the proposed registration process.

While the Government has listened to lobbying by Westminster Labour to introduce a new register of short term lets, it is also creating a new use class for short term lets. ‘Permitted development’ rights will allow landlords to reclassify their properties as holiday lets, without planning permission under normal circumstances.

The Government has said it will allow Councils facing pressure from too many short lets in their areas to apply for an ‘Article 4’ declaration which removes permitted development rights and requires planning permission for change of use, the problem is that such a process takes 12 months from time of application (once the new arrangements have been finalised) and the Government are talking about creating the new permitted development rights this side of a general election. 

If the Government continues with the new permitted development rights ahead of both the register that would enable local authorities to know where short lets are and the Article 4 powers it could allow around 10,500 properties currently operating in the shadows as unauthorised holiday flats to become legal, permanently. This would defeat the whole purpose of the new regulations, locking in the problems of anti-social behaviour from holiday flats in unsuitable locations and taking away a vitally needed supply of homes in the middle of a housing crisis.

Leader of Westminster City Council, Cllr Adam Hug, warned that the Government’s proposals: “contain a generously sized escape hatch for landlords who want to escape any regulation at all, which will effectively rob the private rented sector of thousands of homes. The real losers in this will be people looking to rent properties who now have even less chance of a home in Westminster. The Government must close this potential loophole that would create an amnesty for unscrupulous landlords.”

Labour’s Cllr Hug has written to both relevant Secretaries of State (Michael Gove and Lucy Frazer) outlining the Council’s concerns.