Adam Hug

READERS of the Extra don’t need me to remind them just how popular short-term let properties are.

Soho, Covent Garden, Hyde Park, Marylebone and Lancaster Gate are just some areas of our city that are crammed with flats available on Airbnb and other platforms – making Westminster the most saturated area in the country for rentals.

But this dimension of the visitor economy can cause real problems for our residents.

Far too often they face disturbance and dumped rubbish from visitors next door.

We are now receiving an unprecedented 30 complaints a week relating to short-term let properties.

As the short-term let market climbs back to pre-pandemic levels, the city council estimates there are currently around 12,000 short-term lets in Westminster, more than any other London borough.

Weekend parties can mean misery for residents. One person living in Brewer Street contacted us in desperation after 200 people arrived at a flat in the building, leading to a torrent of “loud music, shouting and screaming”.

The resident told us: “They started a loud party soon after 11pm with loud music above us. It is not the first time; they make any sleep impossible.”

And this from a resident in Marylebone: “Every time I leave the apartment or come back home, there are random people sitting on the doorsteps and in corridors. Our flat raised it as a concern to our landlord, but we didn’t get any explanation on why this is happening.”

Across the city, apartment blocks are being hollowed out to become virtual hotels.

On Edgware Road a high turnover of guests and over-occupied flats means that bed bases, mattresses and furniture are fly-tipped onto pavements every single day from high-rise buildings.

The explosion in short-term lets has led to an uneven playing field for the West End’s hotels which have to pay business rates, corporation tax and obey the rules, taking legal responsibility for the behaviour of their guests in a way short-let landlords currently don’t have to.

The city council is working with property owners and taking legal action where the law is being flouted. Since the beginning of the year, we have served 86 planning contravention notices on houses and flats we suspect have operated a short-term let for more than the 90 nights in a year, and our housing team is currently running 500 active investigations.

But the reality is we need more powers to identify which properties are breaking the rules.

I am renewing my call on the government to tackle this issue. We need a compulsory registration scheme – of the sort in operation in other major cities around the world – so we know where all the short-term rental properties are and can, at a minimum, enforce the 90-day limit fully.

Without this council officers would have the task of physically monitoring thousands of properties.

Recognising that these are business operations, being used for commercial gain, we also want to see a requirement for hosts to use paid-for commercial waste services, allowing us to penalise hosts for fly-tipping and ensure domestic waste services for residents are not being exploited.

Councils need to be equipped to get a grip on the numbers, supported by the government with the powers to control and reverse the relentless growth of short-term lets that have eroded our limited housing stock.

There is a distinct difference between someone occasionally renting out their property while on holiday and someone taking up valuable housing stock as a cash cow for short-term letting.

A compulsory register will finally allow us to start taking down operations that flaunt the 90-day rule and get back to the original intention of these properties, allowing people to experience someone’s home for a short stay.

Without those powers, we are looking at a catastrophic loss of homes. Let’s hope the new cabinet acts on this before the roof comes off.

• Adam Hug is Labour leader of Westminster City Council.