Britain’s booming Airbnb industry is creating a rental crisis in coastal towns with one beauty spot having 90 times more holiday lets than homes, the House of Lords has heard.
Speaking to peers on Monday, the Lord Bishop of Exeter Robert Ronald Atwell revealed that in Cornwall, just 208 properties are available for rent compared with a staggering 19,000 holiday homes.
In the popular tourist hotspot of Devon, long-term rental properties available have slumped to just under 700, while almost 16,000 holiday lets are currently listed, he said,
Mr. Atwell said that without systemic change, the situation will see coastal and rural communities “hollowed out,” with a devastating impact on jobs, healthcare and education.
In one area of his diocese, Mr. Atwell said that the impact of second home ownership was so great, the community is struggling to recruit volunteers for a lifeboat crew.
Calling for regulation of the Airbnb industry, he said: “Too often, local people are forced out of the areas where their families have lived for generations, fracturing their support networks, to the detriment of individuals, families and whole communities.
“Tourism is an important industry. No one begrudges those who have the privilege of choice in enjoying the countryside and our fabulous coastline—but without systemic change, including regulating the Airbnb industry, our rural and coastal communities will be hollowed out.
City Focus
Mr. Atwell said the “human and societal cost” of the housing crisis is “accelerating.”“Employers struggle to recruit for the hospitality and retail industries,” he told peers.
“Healthcare providers and community services suffer shortages because key workers cannot afford to live in rural and coastal areas.
“In his 2021 report, the chief medical officer for England noted the high proportion of the worst health and well-being outcomes for individuals that are concentrated in coastal communities, and access to quality affordable housing is a contributory factor.”
According to the peer, the demand for social housing in rural areas is growing at “ten times the rate” of that in towns and cities.
“In Devon, with the current rate of net additions to the affordable housing stock, even if housing waiting lists closed tomorrow, it would still take over 32 years to clear the backlog.
He referred to a report by the universities of Kent and Southampton which details a “dramatic rise” of homelessness in rural areas, with a 24 percent increase in rough sleeping in the last year.
“Rural and coastal areas often fall through the cracks in our national data gathering, but research by the Rural Services Network shows that, if our rural communities were aggregated into one region, its need for levelling up would be greater than any other region in the United Kingdom.
“It is why the current housing crisis merits action, not just sympathy.”
Earlier on Monday, the government announced a new raft of proposals to increase housebuilding as it tries to meet its promise of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Michael Gove told an audience in London the government is on track to deliver one million new homes during the current Parliament and put forward a series of proposals to tackle the UK’s housing crisis.
Although welcoming the news, Mr. Atwell said: “However, I regret that in the statement by the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, the focus is on cities and, once again, there is no recognition of the scale of the housing crisis in rural and coastal communities.”
He added: “We need cross-departmental working and cross-party agreement to forge a coherent long-term strategy that will secure good housing and the flourishing of our rural and coastal communities. I hope that such a coalition of goodwill will begin here and now, today.”
£1.5 billion Funding
Responding to Mr. Atwell, Baroness Swinburne—appointed Lord Whip of the House last month—said “bespoke challenges” faced by rural and coastal communities are in need of being addressed by the government.“They are complex and multilayered by virtue of the communities’ more remote locations and range from limited availability of affordable homes to barriers to home ownership when up against the opportunities provided in more urban areas,” she said.
Ms. Swinburne said her department was working to address the “highly relevant” issues of second homes and short lets in those communities.
She said new measures to “strike the right balance” between boosting local tourist economies and the availability of affordable homes for local people, will give councils the power to apply a council tax premium of up to 100 percent on second homes through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.
“With respect to the regulating of holiday lets, we propose to introduce a planning use class for short-term lets and a registration scheme for all such properties,” she told peers.
“The consultations on these have just closed and we will give an update in due course.
“Through the Renters (Reform) Bill we will change the way that the short-term lets market interacts with the private rented sector. By abolishing no-fault Section 21 evictions, as well as removing the existing ground, landlords will be unable to evict a long-term tenant to convert their home to a holiday let and maximise profit during the peak summer season.
“We do not think that it is right that landlords can do this and we will end the practice.”
Stating that the government is “absolutely committed” to delivering for rural and coastal communities, Ms. Swinburne said £1.5 billion had been invested through the levelling up fund, the UK shared prosperity fund and the rural England prosperity fund in coastal and rural areas to date.
She concluded: “However, there is a lot more that can be done.”
