City council calls for power to regulate short lets in response to Government consultation

Oxford City Council has renewed its call to the Government for powers to regulate properties rented out entirely as short lets.

This is in response to a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport consultation which discussed, amongst other topics, the rise of platforms such as Airbnb leading to growth in the guest accommodation market.

The consultation outlined that in England the short-term letting market is currently unregulated, except in London where there is a cap of 90 days per annum for letting out a property on a short-term basis.

Oxford City Council considers the rise in short lets to be a "major problem", specifically when leased as entire properties. It argued this results in a “loss of valuable homes in one of the most unaffordable places for housing in the UK”.

The AirDNA website currently shows 1,697 active short let rentals in Oxford. More than half of these – 878, or 52% – are let as entire properties.

A citywide selective licensing scheme introduced on 1 September means that all private rented homes in Oxford now need a licence – however, properties let as holiday homes are exempt under the Housing Act 2004.

Due to the short-let sector being "essentially unregulated", the council argued that it has little power to enforce standards required for other rented accommodation.

It added that issues such as antisocial behaviour and nuisance are challenging to tackle when there is a stream of different people inhabiting the property.

The council has responded to the DCMS consultation reiterating previous calls for a mandatory licensing scheme for whole house short lets, which would ensure owners meet minimum safety standards with their properties.

A mandatory licencing scheme would additionally make investigating complaints easier and allow the council to set its own conditions to address local needs or concerns – such as restricting noise levels at night or littering.

In the most extreme cases, it would provide the council with wider and easier to use powers to act against the illegal use of short lets.

The city council said it would also like to see changes to planning legislation, with the designation of homes used predominantly as short term lets as a separate planning class.

Ian Wright, Oxford's head of regulatory services and community safety, said: “Nobody is objecting to people renting out rooms in their own home through websites like Airbnb. But the growing number of entire homes rented out as short lets is a huge problem in Oxford.

“Short lets deprive our city of much needed homes, exacerbating our affordability crisis. Antisocial and illegal behaviour by people using short lets is a blight on our communities. And the uncontrolled rise in short lets risks parts of our city becoming a virtual ghost town, impacting schools and other local services.

“While we do what we can to tackle the impact of problematic short lets our powers are limited. We first called for the government to introduce effective regulation of short lets in 2018. They’ve belatedly acknowledged that short lets are an issue. Now, it’s time for action.”

Lottie Winson