Brighton and Hove City Council is stepping up efforts to tackle rogue landlords who rent out properties on platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com without paying taxes, complying with regulations, or registering as businesses.
At a cabinet meeting held on Thursday, councillors agreed to lobby the government for stronger powers to regulate the growing short-term holiday let sector. The council is also calling on ministers to revise planning rules to help local authorities manage the situation more effectively.
Council Leader Bella Sankey emphasized the need for collaboration with the short-let sector. “It’s essential that we work together to build a clearer picture of the local landscape and press the government for the tools we need to manage it responsibly,” she said.
Labour Councillor Amanda Evans, chair of the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee, led a fact-finding mission to discover how other local authorities across the UK are handling the impact of holiday lets. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, her group found that around 6,000 homes in Brighton and Hove are listed as short-term holiday rentals—yet only 400 are formally registered as businesses.
“There are many property owners who may not even realise they’re breaking the law,” Evans noted. “They’re not registered as businesses, aren’t paying business rates or taxes, and aren’t making arrangements for commercial waste disposal. The issue is, we don’t even know where many of these properties are, so enforcement becomes incredibly difficult.”
The council is now looking at using the City Plan—its key strategic planning document—to introduce local controls on holiday lets. Proposals include placing conditions on new housing developments and conversions to prevent them from being used as short-term rentals, as well as designating specific zones where holiday lets could be restricted or even banned altogether.
Cabinet members agreed to gather more data on the sector to inform future regulation, as they seek a balance between supporting the tourism economy and protecting local housing stock for residents.
National legislation may also be on the horizon. A bill set to be debated in the House of Commons this July aims to introduce a licensing system for short-term lets, which could give councils like Brighton and Hove greater oversight and enforcement powers.
As the city grapples with housing pressure and the increasing impact of holiday rentals on communities, the push to bring greater accountability to the sector is gaining momentum.
