Short-term letting rules will be useless without enforcement

Rules without enforcement are not only useless: They effectively signal to owners they can leave homes in their entirety, used as short-term lets for part of the year, to sit idle for much of the time, while thousands of families and people need a home

When we allow long-term homes to become de facto holiday accommodation without proper oversight, we don’t just distort the housing market. We weaken the social and economic fabric of local communities. Picture: Larry Cummins

Housing, or the lack thereof, is a national emergency. Every month, we hit new record highs in the number of people without a secure home — the latest figures released on Friday show there are 17,000 people homeless. In an emergency, we must use every policy lever available to increase housing supply. But supply is not all about construction — it’s also about how existing stock is managed and accounted for. 

Government has a duty to ensure existing housing is made available to the long-term market for families and people. The rise of short-term letting of entire homes has further undermined supply and has exacerbated the housing crisis. Strengthened enforcement of  short-term letting regulations is not a niche bureaucratic demand. It is a vital, key element in addressing the abject lack of housing options for people.