Rachel Blake

A MOTHER has been moved more than 12 miles away from the Westminster school where she works and her daughter attends because of the housing crisis and is facing giving up her job because of the “four-hour commute”.

Rachel Blake, newly-elected MP for Cities of London and Westminster, raised the teaching assistant’s plight in a debate in the House of Commons about “short-term lets”.

The debate showed how Airbnb-style lets – where homes are consistently rented out for short periods – is massively impacting the availability of privately owned homes for longer-term rent in Westminster. A knock-on effect is to further reduce the number of homes that can be used for temporary accommodation by the council.

Ms Blake said: “Every day I hear from a new family struggling to stay on an even keel after they have had to move to temporary accommodation away from school and their support networks.

“Just this week, I heard from a mother who has been moved to Dagenham, over 12 miles from her daughter’s school, where she also works as a teaching assistant.

“She is realistic about how long they are likely to be in temporary accommodation and knows the state of the London private rented market, so to prevent her son from having to commute for four hours a day and to try to make sure that he has friends locally, she would like to move him to a school in Dagenham, but without childcare support that means giving up her job.

“Families across London and across the country have to make that kind of decision every day, and it is not good enough.

“It is creating incredible pressure on our wider system and local authority finances due to the rising costs of supporting households in temporary accommodation – and it is all because there are simply not enough affordable homes for people.

“The proliferation of short-term lets of whole homes is making the availability of private rented homes much worse. Of course, London is a proudly international city, and we need to make sure that flexible accommodation options are available for visitors, but we will remain a thriving international city only if we ensure that sufficient housing is available for Londoners.

“Whole homes rented out consistently as short-term lets… are making it much more difficult for communities to stick together.

She added: “What started out as a way to make additional income from a spare room has become a significant cause of the decline in the number of homes available for local residents.”

Ms Blake also raised the situation of another constituent, “Jayne”, who was concerned about security of her block that had a “constant turnover of strangers”, due to short lets.

According to the council, around 13,000 properties are listed as available for short-term lets in Westminster. More than 20 per cent of all the housing stock in the West End ward are short-term lets and, at the time of the census, 30,000 properties in the borough had no “full-time” residents.

“One in every 85 homes in the capital is available for short-term let on some basis for an undetermined number of nights each year,” said Ms Blake, who suggested progress would come through “devolution of powers”, a licensing scheme and better regulation.