Agenda item

Report by Chief Executive (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Chief Executive (circulated previously) regarding Call from Evidence – Short Term Holiday Lets.

The Chief Executive highlighted the following to the Committee:

·         The Department for Culture, Music and Sport (DCMS) had sent out a call for evidence in respect of the issue of short-term holiday lets.

·         The issue of properties being given over to short-term holiday lets had been an area of concern in the district for some time but with a significant increase in the last three years more councils including MPs had started to raise concerns.

·         The DCMS request had gone out to all concerned with the holiday trade; including Airbnb hosts, Local Authorities and residents.

·         Question 1 was asking for information on how the situation had changed over time.  It was difficult to obtain an accurate picture of the numbers of properties being used as holiday lets, as the only recourse to information available was the Council’s Business rates and Council tax databases.  If a property was not registered for business rates the Council would have no way of knowing about it.

·         In 2019 1,375 properties were operating as holiday lets under business rates, this had increased by 435 to 1,810 by 2022.

·         Question 6 dealt with the perceived affect increases in holiday lets were having on the housing market.  The answer to this included many factors such as an increase in people moving to the area and low salaries, as well as Landlords serving section 21 eviction notices, to rent out the property as a holiday let, had increased from 36 in 2020-21 to 103 in 2021-22.

·         The concern was that there was becoming a lack of community cohesion in areas with high numbers of holiday-let properties.  The number of holiday lets in certain Parishes was shown in the table on page 38 of the report.

·         The average house price had increased from £246,147 in August 2019 to £321,346 in July 2022.

·         The average rental cost for a three-bedroom property, in August 2019, rose from £735 per calendar month to £775 per calendar month in August 2022.

·         Question 7 asked about Anti-social behaviour being an issue with holiday lets.  The information presented in the report came from actual people who had suffered as a result of living near holiday lets.

·         Question 8 dealt with any other issues causing adverse impacts on residents as a result of holiday lets.  Staff recruitment was an issue for local businesses where holiday lets were prevalent.  Either through lack of housing available in the vicinity of a job offer due to cost or unavailability as a result of holiday lets, job posts were remaining vacant.

·         The Council would like to see a licensing scheme in operation to help regulate holiday lets and also in conjunction with this have a link to planning whereby a change of use application has to be submitted before a holiday let can be converted, this would allow control over numbers.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Chief Executive gave the following responses:

·         Although a sizeable village, Braunton was not included in the table on page 38 of the report as less than 10% of the total number of dwellings in the village were being used as holiday lets.

·         In terms relation to trade waste – data matching was undertaken between business rates accounts and holiday lets, but if the Council didn’t know where holiday lets were being operated we would not have any way of finding them.

·         Examples of staffing shortages due to lack of availability of accommodation was welcomed.

·         The area of Lee within Ilfracombe was not listed in the table as it couldn’t be separated out from the Parish of Ilfracombe but that it could be used to highlight that there are a high proportion of properties within Parishes used as holiday lets

RESOLVED that the response attached to the report, be endorsed as the response to the Call for Evidence from North Devon Council, subject to any minor additions and amendments, and subject to completion of elements of the data, as deemed appropriate by the Chief Executive after consultation with the Leader.