Government urged to act on London’s ‘unlawful’ short-term holiday lets

The Government is being urged to act after research revealed that over half of London’s short-term holiday lets are being rented unlawfully. A report by Central London Forward, a coalition of inner-city boroughs, found that more than 50% of the 117,000 short-term lets listed in 2024 exceeded the legal 90-day annual limit.

At the Centre for London housing summit, Westminster City Council leader Adam Hug said his borough is “at the epicentre of the problem,” with high concentrations of short-term lets in areas like the West End, Bayswater, and Pimlico. He warned of the impact on communities, including rising private rents, noise, fly-tipping, and strain on council services.

The number of short-term lets has grown rapidly, from under 30,000 in 2015 to over 100,000 by 2019. Though numbers dipped during the pandemic, they have since rebounded.

The report urges the Government to require rental platforms to share property-level data with councils and introduce a national registration scheme. “Currently, local authorities cannot enforce existing rules at scale,” said Hug, noting that platforms often obscure property locations, hindering enforcement.

He called for stronger powers to support local planning teams in enforcing the 90-day rule. “We really do need national Government to step up,” he added.

Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing, backed the report, saying regulations are now “completely inadequate” and boroughs lack the capacity to enforce them effectively.