New holiday let rules to protect local people and support tourism – Consultation

Short-term lets are now a significant part of the UK’s visitor economy. They provide increased choice and flexibility for tourists and business travellers and those attending major sporting and cultural events.

A consultation published recently by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will propose introducing planning permission for an existing home to start to be used as a short term let – helping support local people in areas where high numbers of holiday lets are preventing them from finding affordable housing.

It will also consider whether to give owners flexibility to let out their home for up to a specified number of nights in a calendar year without the need for planning permission.

The consultation seeks views on whether it would be helpful to expressly provide a degree of flexibility for home owners to be able to let out the home they live in for a number of nights a year before planning permission for a change of use may be required. They are consulting on whether this should be 30, 60 or 90 nights a year. See: Introduction of a use class for short term lets and associated permitted development rights – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)