Public Meeting on Short-Term Holiday Lets

This public meeting had been planned to take place in September 2022 but it had to be cancelled due to the mourning period for Queen Elizabeth II. Its purpose was to provide our Green Party Councillor, Clare Turnbull, with information on the impact of short-term and holiday lets on Whitstable. She was then to use this information to respond to the Government’s call for evidence in their consultation on developing a tourist accommodation registration scheme in England.

As the meeting could not be held, Cllr Turnbull created an online survey, which more than 170 residents completed. You can see the results of that survey here.

In April 2023, the Government published two consultations closing on 7th June concerning possible registration schemes for holiday lets. Cllr Turnbull called a new public meeting to find out what Whitstable residents thought of the proposals, which she could then report to the Government on their behalf.

The meeting on 19th May was chaired by Cllr Steven Wheeler, our second Green councillor in Whitstable, elected alongside Cllr Turnbull earlier in the month.

Cllr Turnbull gave a brief review of her survey findings submitted to the Government last September. Although most residents appreciated the positive impact of holiday lets on the town’s economy, they were concerned about the hollowing out of communities caused by the large number of them, as well as the increase in noise and anti-social behaviour, rubbish left on the streets and the parking problems associated with the holiday lets.

At Cllr Turnbull’s invitation, residents commented on her findings and gave corroborating evidence for them. The general feeling was that there are too many short-term lets in Whitstable, and that the balance has shifted in a way that means it is no longer a lovely place to live with a strong sense of community in its narrow streets.

Attention then shifted to the measures the Government outlines in its two new consultations which could place restrictions on holiday lets.

Residents made it clear that what they are hoping for are regulations which:

• Provide a better balance between short-term lets and residential properties to help preserve a sense of community and affordable housing.
• Ensure that the Council receives the contributions it needs to provide essential services.
• Make owners accountable for the upkeep of properties to a good standard, for the behaviour of guests and for ensuring health and safety measures.
• Create a level playing field for all tourist accommodation.
  Preserve the initial aims of platforms that it should be easy to let out space in your own home.
• Give clarity about what constitutes a change of use from residential to business use.
• Also – caution about ‘too much red tape’, ‘fit for purpose’, ‘practical and supportive’.

The meeting approved the Government’s proposal that there should be a separate use class set up for short-term lets which are not for lodgers or traditional Airbnbs, where the owner of a house rents out their main residence or rooms in it for a short period.

The register of short-term lets, to be introduced through the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill, will help to provide local planning authorities with information about which properties are being let out in their area in this way. A working group is to be set up at Canterbury City Council to consider what action they could take to remedy some of the problems for communities. Those considered at the meeting were the following:

1. Creating a delineated area of Whitstable where no change of use of a house from a dwelling house to a short-term let will be permitted (in the same way as was done for Houses in Multiple Occupation in Canterbury – mainly student houses (Article 4 Direction 1).
2. Restricting the number of days a short-term let can be rented out in a calendar year.
3. Introducing a tourist tax as in many places on the Continent (can be as little as £1 a night).